List of all Nikola Tesla quotes
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Nikola Tesla Quotes

All Nikola Tesla Quotes

  1. "I don't regret that others stole my ideas. I am sorry they don't have their own" (On inventions and patents)
  2. "A man is born to work, to suffer and to fight; he who doesn't, must perish."
  3. "In crystal we have a pure evidence of the existence of a formative life principle, and although in spite of everything we cannot understand the life of crystals - it is still a living being."(Nikola Tesla, 1900)
  4. "Crystals are living beings at the beginning of creation."
  5. "All things have a frequency and a vibration."
  6. "We are all one. People are interconnected by invisible forces. Although we have the freedom to think and act, we stick together, like stars on the heavenly arc, with unbreakable connections. These connections cannot be seen, but we can feel them."
  7. "I strongly believe in the rule of compensation. True awards are always in proportion with work and sacrifices." (About his research work)
  8. "Let the future tell the truth, let it judge each man according to his work and merit. The present is theirs, but the future is mine, the future for which I worked so hard." (About his inventions and merits)
  9. "Peace in the world can only come as a natural consequence of universal illumination."
  10. "I don't think there is any deeper fulfilment that can capture a human heart than the feeling of an inventor seeing his ideas materialized. Such feelings make man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything."
  11. "The progress and development of man are of immeasurable importance for humanity and are essentially dependent on invention."
  12. "The most important product of a creative mind is an invention. Its ultimate aim is the rule of mind over nature and the use of its forces for the needs of mankind."
  13. "The inventor finds a huge compensation in the pleasure offered by his work and in knowing that he is an individual of extraordinary capabilities without whom our species would long be extinct in the fierce struggle against merciless elements."
  14. The practical success of an idea, irrespective of inherent possibilities, depends on the attitude of contemporaries."
  15. Of all the forces of friction' the one which mostly slows down the human progress is ignorance, the thing called by Buddha 'The greatest evil in the world'.
  16. The gift of mental energy comes from God, the supreme being and if we concentrate our thoughts on this truth we get into harmony with this great power. My mother taught me to seek all truth in the Bible."
  17. Scientists today think deeply instead of clearly. A man must be sane to think clearly, but it's possible to think deeply and be rather crazy."
  18. Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander from one equation to the next, in order to end up with a structure that has no correspondence with reality."
  19. The progress of civilization seems like fire, first the spark, then the flame and finally an explosion of fire increasing its speed and power."
  20. Whatever we try to do in any area we must submit it to our efforts, because we depend on the force."
  21. Our virtues and our failures are inseparable, just like energy and matter. When they separate, the man is not there any more."
  22. The universal peace as a result of cumulative efforts through the centuries can come into being quickly - not like crystal which at once forms a solution that has been slowly in preparation."
  23. A scientist is not aiming toward sudden results. He does not expect his advanced ideas to be readily accepted."
  24. Science is a personal perversion except if its end goal is the betterment of mankind."
  25. Even matter which is called inorganic, deemed dead, responds to the disbelievers and gives irrefutable proof of the living principle within itself. Everything that exists, organic or inorganic, living and non-living is sensitive to outside stimuli."
  26. I see it as my duty, as a son of his country, to help the City of Zagreb in every way by advice and deed" (24 May 1892 about the idea of constructing the alternating current power plant in Croatia)
  27. If I will have the luck to realize at least some of my ideas, it will be a benefaction for the whole mankind. If these hopes of mine come true, the sweetest thought will be that it is the work of a Serbian." (Nikola Tesla during his visit to Belgrade in 1892)
  28. On that day when science begins to study non-physical (spiritual) phenomena, it will advance in a decade more than in the early centuries of its history."
  29. Man must exercise temperance and control of his senses and leanings in every way, thus keeping himself young in body and mind."
  30. Restraint has not always been according to my taste, but my pleasurable experiences are a huge reward."
  31. I would give a thousand secrets of nature upon which I stumbled by accident, in exchange for this one which I extracted from nature, in spite of all the miracles and dangers which I faced."
  32. If you don't know how, observe the phenomena of nature, they will give you clear answers and inspiration."
  33. Insufficient observation is only a form of unknowing, a cause of many perverse incidents and a triumph of crazy ideas."
  34. I was amazed at this man, who, without thorough education or scientific experience did so much." (about Thomas Alva Edison)
  35. I learned a dozen languages, studied literature and arts, spent my best years in libraries reading everything that came my way, and though I sometimes felt I was losing time, I quickly realized it was the best thing I ever did."
  36. Very probably my career would have ended ahead of its time if Providence did not provide me with a defence mechanism which got stronger year by year and which unerringly activated itself whenever my forces were at their end."
  37. If I try to continue a broken line of thought, I feel a veritable spiritual nausea, then, almost by chance, I go over to another job, surprised by the freshness of mind and ease with which I overcome obstacles which had tormented me before. And as a rule I find answers to difficult questions with the least possible effort."
  38. We must all have some ideal which will govern our behaviour and satisfy us, but it is not material. It can be religion, art, science, whatever, it is only important that it acts as a non-material force."
  39. Money does not represent such a value as man has placed in it. All my money I invested in inventions which enabled new inventions enabling an easier life for humanity."
  40. An individual is transitory, races and peoples will come and go, but man remains. This is wherein lies a deep difference between an individual and a whole."
  41. There are three possible solutions to the problem of increase of human energy: nutrition, peace, work."
  42. To conquer the steep force becomes more and more difficult every day. Defense is a continuous obtaining the advantages of attack, as if we make progress in the sotonic science of destruction."
  43. Conflicts between individuals, as well as the government and the people, are the result of misunderstanding in the broadest sense of this term. Misunderstandings are always caused by the lack of capacity to respect mutual opinion."
  44. The danger of conflict increases dangerously because of a more or less dominant feeling of belligerency which is present in every human being. The best way to oppose this tendency is to dispel the ignorance by a systematic spreading of general knowledge. Bearing this in mind the most important is help through an exchange of opinions and relations."
  45. Mutual understanding will be infinitely easier by the use of one universal language."
  46. Our senses enable us to perceive only minute parts of the outer world. Our debate takes place at a small distance. Our sight is obstructed by a wall and a shadow. In order to get to know one another we must circumvent the sphere of our feeling of perception. We must transfer our intelligence, travel, transport of material and transfer of energy needed for our existence."
  47. Irrespective of what the future shall bring, the universal application of these grand principles is completely in place, although their arrival seems long in coming." (Inventions in the future)
  48. Practical transfer of energy without wires has an extraordinary importance for man.
  49. In such a way everything that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, pushed aside, suppressed - only to come out greater, more victorious from this fight."
  50. Every effort under duress requires the sacrifice of life energy. I have never paid that price. On the contrary, I let my thoughts flourish."
  51. They say that I am one of the most persistent workers, maybe I am, if thought is equivalent to work, because I dedicated to it nearly all my time. But if work is interpreted as a finite activity in a finite time by specially determined rules, than maybe I am the worst sloth."
  52. Our first strivings are exclusively the instinctive stimulus of lively imagination and non-discipline."
  53. As we grow older, the reason strengthens and we become even more systematic and creative. But these first impulses, unproductive at first sight, are the greatest moments that can strongly shape our destinies."
  54. The issue of great importance shall be to know: what is the capacity of Earth? And what is the charge if it is electrified?"
  55. As long as there are different nationalities, there will be patriotism. That feeling has to be rooted out from our hearts before the permanent peace is established. It should be replaced by love towards nature and scientific ideal.
  56. Science and inventions are strong forces which will lead to its termination."
  57. Modern science says: 'The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future.' From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom.
  58. Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.
  59. It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects.
  60. I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.
  61. In the twenty-first century, the robot will take the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization.
  62. The harness of waterfalls is the most economical method known for drawing energy from the sun.
  63. The human being is a self-propelled automaton entirely under the control of external influences. Willful and predetermined though they appear, his actions are governed not from within, but from without. He is like a float tossed about by the waves of a turbulent sea.
  64. The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit.
  65. It seems that I have always been ahead of my time. I had to wait nineteen years before Niagara was harnessed by my system, fifteen years before the basic inventions for wireless which I gave to the world in 1893 were applied universally.
  66. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.
  67. The spread of civilisation may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power.
  68. The history of science shows that theories are perishable. With every new truth that is revealed we get a better understanding of Nature and our conceptions and views are modified.
  69. The Secretary of Hygiene or Physical Culture will be far more important in the cabinet of the President of the United States who holds office in the year 2035 than the Secretary of War.
  70. There is no doubt that some plant food, such as oatmeal, is more economical than meat, and superior to it in regard to both mechanical and mental performance. Such food, moreover, taxes our digestive organs decidedly less, and, in making us more contented and sociable, produces an amount of good difficult to estimate.
  71. If we want to reduce poverty and misery, if we want to give to every deserving individual what is needed for a safe existence of an intelligent being, we want to provide more machinery, more power. Power is our mainstay, the primary source of our many-sided energies.
  72. As in nature, all is ebb and tide, all is wave motion, so it seems that in all branches of industry, alternating currents - electric wave motion - will have the sway.
  73. We wind a simple ring of iron with coils; we establish the connections to the generator, and with wonder and delight we note the effects of strange forces which we bring into play, which allow us to transform, to transmit and direct energy at will.
  74. There is no memory or retentive faculty based on lasting impression. What we designate as memory is but increased responsiveness to repeated stimuli.
  75. From my childhood I had been intended for the clergy. This prospect hung like a dark cloud on my mind.
  76. There is no conflict between the ideal of religion and the ideal of science, but science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine.
  77. I myself eschew all stimulants. I also practically abstain from meat.
  78. The earth is bountiful, and where her bounty fails, nitrogen drawn from the air will refertilize her womb. I developed a process for this purpose in 1900. It was perfected fourteen years later under the stress of war by German chemists.
  79. Electrical science has revealed to us the true nature of light, has provided us with innumerable appliances and instruments of precision, and has thereby vastly added to the exactness of our knowledge.
  80. Of the various branches of electrical investigation, perhaps the most interesting and immediately the most promising is that dealing with alternating currents.
  81. All knowledge or form conception is evoked through the medium of the eye, either in response to disturbances directly received on the retina or to their fainter secondary effects and reverberations. Other sense organs can only call forth feelings which have no reality of existence and of which no conception can be formed.
  82. With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look - for dizzier heights.
  83. Archimedes was my ideal. I admired the works of artists, but to my mind, they were only shadows and semblances. The inventor, I thought, gives to the world creations which are palpable, which live and work.
  84. In a time not distant, it will be possible to flash any image formed in thought on a screen and render it visible at any place desired. The perfection of this means of reading thought will create a revolution for the better in all our social relations.
  85. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny.
  86. The universal utilization of water power and its long-distance transmission will supply every household with cheap power and will dispense with the necessity of burning fuel. The struggle for existence being lessened, there should be development along ideal rather than material lines.
  87. By an irony of fate, my first employment was as a draughtsman. I hated drawing; it was for me the very worst of annoyances. Fortunately, it was not long before I secured the position I sought, that of chief electrician to the telephone company.
  88. We have soon to have everywhere smoke annihilators, dust absorbers, ozonizers, sterilizers of water, air, food and clothing, and accident preventers on streets, elevated roads and in subways. It will become next to impossible to contract disease germs or get hurt in the city, and country folk will got to town to rest and get well.
  89. The newspapers of the twenty-first century will give a mere 'stick' in the back pages to accounts of crime or political controversies, but will headline on the front pages the proclamation of a new scientific hypothesis.
  90. When a coil is operated with currents of very high frequency, beautiful brush effects may be produced, even if the coil be of comparatively small dimensions. The experimenter may vary them in many ways, and, if it were nothing else, they afford a pleasing sight.
  91. I constructed a laboratory in the neighborhood of Pike's Peak. The conditions in the pure air of the Colorado Mountains proved extremely favorable for my experiments, and the results were most gratifying to me.
  92. Electrical science has disclosed to us the more intimate relation existing between widely different forces and phenomena and has thus led us to a more complete comprehension of Nature and its many manifestations to our senses.
  93. I have already demonstrated, by crucial tests, the practicability of signaling by my system from one to any other point of the globe, no matter how remote, and I shall soon convert the disbelievers.
  94. If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.
  95. Of all things, I liked books best.
  96. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.
  97. "If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world
  98. All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed - only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.
  99. What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics.
  100. If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have the key to the universe.
  101. My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.
  102. Everyone should consider his body as a priceless gift from one whom he loves above all, a marvelous work of art, of indescribable beauty, and mystery beyond human conception, and so delicate that a word, a breath, a look, nay, a thought may injure it.
  103. All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed - only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.
  104. Life is and will ever remain an equation incapable of solution, but it contains certain known factors
  105. We crave for new sensations but soon become indifferent to them. The wonders of yesterday are today common occurrences.
  106. You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.
  107. I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labour, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers.
  108. Its not the love you make. It's the love you give.
  109. The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away, but man remains.
  110. What we now want most is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth and the elimination of that fanatic devotion to exalted ideals of national egoism and pride, which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife.
  111. But instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical deduction, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile.
  112. I am part of a light, and it is the music. The Light fills my six senses: I see it, hear, feel, smell, touch and think. Thinking of it means my sixth sense. Particles of Light are written note. O bolt of lightning can be an entire sonata. A thousand balls of lightening is a concert.. For this concert I have created a Ball Lightning, which can be heard on the icy peaks of the Himalayas.
  113. Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves.
  114. My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements, and operate the device entirely in my mind.
  115. The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter - for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. He lives and labors and hopes.
  116. Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using seventeen of my patents.
  117. Most certainly, some planets are not inhabited, but others are, and among these there must exist life under all conditions and phases of development.
  118. Inventors don't have time for married life.
  119. So astounding are the facts in this connection, that it would seem as though the Creator, himself had electrically designed this planet...
  120. Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment and merging of races, and we are still far from this blissful realization.
  121. Great moments are born great oppurtunity.
  122. All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space, the akasha or luminiferous ether, which is acted upon by the life giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never-ending cycles all things and phenomena.
  123. It is not in the shallow physical imitation of men that women will assert first their equality and later their superiority, but in the awakening of the intellect of women.
  124. There is something within me that might be illusion as it is often case with young delighted people, but if I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity.
  125. We are all one. Only egos, beliefs, and fears separate us.
  126. The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention.
  127. When natural inclination develops into a passionate desire, one advances towards his goal in seven-league boots.
  128. A new idea must not be judged by its immediate results.
  129. One's salvation could only be brought about through his own efforts.
  130. Genius is its own passport, and has always been ready to change habitats until the natural one is found.

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