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Nikola Tesla Quotes (1856-1943)
Physicist, Inventor
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About Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer. Born in the Lika region of the Military Frontier (present-day Croatia), he was a subject of the Austrian Empire who later became an American citizen.
Best Nikola Tesla Quotes
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Nikola Tesla quotes.
“This growing tendency of women to overshadow the masculine is a sign of a deteriorating civilization.”
“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.”
“Woman's determined competition with man in the business world is breaking down some of the best traditions”
“We crave for new sensations but soon become indifferent to them. The wonders of yesterday are today common occurrences.”
“The tendency of women to push aside man, supplanting the old spirit of cooperation with him in all the affairs of life, is very disappointing to me.”
“In a crystal we have the clear evidence of the existence of a formative life-principle, and though we cannot understand the life of a crystal, it is none the less a living being.”
“Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”
“Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.”
“The idea of atomic energy is illusionary but it has taken so powerful a hold on the minds, that although I have preached against it for twenty-five years, there are still some who believe it to be realizable.”
“Money does not represent such a value as men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries enabling mankind to have a little easier life.”
“The scientists from Franklin to Morse were clear thinkers and did not produce erroneous theories. The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”
“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success … Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.”
“Up to that time I never realized that I possessed any particular gift of discovery, but Lord Rayleigh, whom I always considered as an ideal man of science, had said so and if that was the case, I felt that I should concentrate on some big idea.”
“Alternate currents, especially of high frequencies, pass with astonishing freedom through even slightly rarefied gases. The upper strata of the air are rarefied. To reach a number of miles out into space requires the overcoming of difficulties of a merely mechanical nature.”
“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.”
“It should be borne in mind that electrical energy obtained by harnessing a waterfall is probably fifty times more effective than fuel energy. Since this is the most perfect way of rendering the sun's energy available, the direction of the future material development of man is clearly indicated.”
“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.”
“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.”
“Einstein's relativity work is a magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king... its exponents are brilliant men but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists.”
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. … I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”
Nikola Tesla Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Nikola Tesla quotes by topic.
Nikola Tesla on Future 4 quotes
“Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”
Nikola Tesla on Work 3 quotes
“Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”
Nikola Tesla on Science 3 quotes
“Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.”
Nikola Tesla on Scientists 3 quotes
“Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.”
Nikola Tesla on Ideas 2 quotes
“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.”
Nikola Tesla on Extraterrestrial life 2 quotes
“To be sure, we do not have no absolute proof that Mars is inhabited [...] Personally, I have my faith on the feeble planetary electrical disturbances which I discovered in the summer of 1899, and which according to my investigations, could not have originated from the Sun, the Moon, or Venus. Further study since has satisfied me they must have emanated from Mars.”
Nikola Tesla on Vegetarianism 2 quotes
“I do not mean here absolute want of food, but want of healthful nutriment. How to provide good and plentiful food is, therefore, a most important question of the day. On the general principles the raising of cattle as a means of providing food is objectionable, because, in the sense interpreted above, it must undoubtedly tend to the addition of mass of a "smaller velocity."”
Nikola Tesla on Electricity 2 quotes
“One can prophesy with a Daniel's confidence that skilled electricians will settle the battles of the near future. But this is the least. In its effect upon war and peace, electricity offers still much greater and more wonderful possibilities. To stop war by the perfection of engines of destruction alone, might consume centuries and centuries. Other means must be employed to hasten the end.”
Nikola Tesla on Sun 2 quotes
“A far better way, however, to obtain power would be to avail ourselves of the sun's rays, which beat the earth incessantly and supply energy at a maximum rate of over four million horsepower per square mile. Although the average energy received per square mile in any locality during the year is only a small fraction of that amount, yet an inexhaustible source of power would be opened up by the discovery of some efficient method of utilizing the energy of the rays.”
Nikola Tesla on Electrical engineering 2 quotes
“A point of great importance would be first to know: what is the capacity of the earth? And what charge does it contain if electrified? Though we have no positive evidence of a charged body existing in space without other oppositely electrified bodies being near, there is a fair probability that the earth is such a body, for by whatever process it was separated from other bodies — and this is the accepted view of its origin — it must have retained a charge, as occurs in all processes of mechanical separation.”
Nikola Tesla on Distance 2 quotes
“When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”
Nikola Tesla on Virtue
“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.”
What Nikola Tesla Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Nikola Tesla shared regarding contemporaries.
Nikola Tesla on Joseph Stalin
Nikola Tesla on Thomas Edison
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. … I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety percent of his labor.”
Quotes About Nikola Tesla
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Nikola Tesla from others.
Comment by the midwife who assisted his birth on Nikola Tesla
Dr. on Nikola Tesla
“We think of his contribution much oftener than that of Ampere and Ohm … the induction motor and our power system are enduring monuments to Nikola Tesla.”
Edwin Howard Armstrong on Nikola Tesla
“The world, I think, will wait a long time for Nikola Tesla's equal in achievement and imagination.”
George W. Bush on Nikola Tesla
“Nikola Tesla is proof that real greatness surpasses national borders and differences.”
Arthur Compton on Nikola Tesla
Albert Einstein on Nikola Tesla
“As an eminent pioneer in the realm of high frequency currents... I congratulate you on the great successes of your life's work.”
Kevin R. Hutson on Nikola Tesla
Ben Johnston on Nikola Tesla
“Nikola Tesla is the true unsung prophet of the electronic age; without whom our radio, auto ignition, telephone, alternating current power generation and transmission, radio and television would all have been impossible.”
Reginald Kapp on Nikola Tesla
Lord Kelvin on Nikola Tesla
“Tesla has contributed more to electrical science than any man up to his time.”
Disputed Quotes
Quotes attributed to Nikola Tesla that are questionable.
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. 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.”
About Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer. Born in the Lika region of the Military Frontier (present-day Croatia), he was a subject of the Austrian Empire who later became an American citizen.