Nikola Tesla Quotes - Page 7

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• His [Thomas Edison] method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90 per cent of the labor. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense. In view of this, the truly prodigious amount of his actual accomplishments is little short of a miracle.

  Nikola Tesla

  Sorry, Book, Knowledge

  29 Copy quote

• My belief is firm in a law of compensation. The true rewards are ever in proportion to the labor and sacrifices made. This is one of the reasons why I feel certain that of all my inventions, the Magnifying Transmitter will prove most important and valuable to future generations. I am prompted to this prediction not so much by thoughts of the commercial and industrial revolution which it will surely bring about, but of the humanitarian consequences of the many achievements it makes possible. Considerations of mere utility weigh little in the balance against the higher benefits of civilization.

  Nikola Tesla

  Hard Work, Sacrifice, Law

  Nikola Tesla (2016). “My Inventions: [Illustrated & Biography Added]”, p.79, eKitap Projesi

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• To conquer by sheer force is becoming harder and harder every day. Defensive is getting continuously the advantage of offensive, as we progress in the satanic science of destruction.

  Nikola Tesla

  Progress, Becoming, Satanic

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “The Nikola Tesla Treasury”, p.506, Simon and Schuster

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• Edison was by far the most successful and, probably, the last exponent of the purely empirical method of investigation. Everything he achieved was the result of persistent trials and experiments often performed at random but always attesting extraordinary vigor and resource. Starting from a few known elements, he would make their combinations and permutations, tabulate them and run through the whole list, completing test after test with incredible rapidity until he obtained a clue. His mind was dominated by one idea, to leave no stone unturned, to exhaust every possibility.

  Nikola Tesla

  Success, Running, Science

  "Tesla Says Edison Was an Empiricist". The New York Times, October 19, 1931.

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• I never have, above my signature, announced anything that I did not prove first. That is the reason why no statement of mine was ever contradicted, and I do not think it will be, because whenever I publish something I go through it first by experiment, then from experiment I calculate, and when I have the theory and practice meet I announce the results.

  Nikola Tesla

  Thinking, Practice, Firsts

  Nikola Tesla (2002). “Nikola Tesla on His Work with Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, Telephony, and Transmission of Power: An Extended Interview”, p.110, 21st Century Books

  30 Copy quote

• I have harnessed the cosmic rays and caused them to operate a motive device.

  Nikola Tesla

  Rays, Motive, Cosmic

  "Brooklyn Eagle" Newspaper, July 10, 1931.

  22 Copy quote

• The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct. [...] 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.

  Nikola Tesla

  Race, Civilization, Parent

  "Machine to End War by Nikola Tesla as told to George Sylvester Viereck". "Liberty", www.pbs.org. February 1937.

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• We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever. I now feel sure that the realization of that idea is not far off. ...the possibilities of the development I refer to, namely, that of the operation of engines on any point of the earth by the energy of the medium.

  Nikola Tesla

  Mean, Ideas, Perfect

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• An inventor's endeavor is essentially lifesaving. Whether he harnesses forces, improves devices, or provides new comforts and conveniences, he is adding to the safety of our existence. He is also better qualified than the average individual to protect himself in peril, for he is observant and resourceful.

  Nikola Tesla

  Life, Average, Safety

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “My Inventions”, p.13, Lulu Press, Inc

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• 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. If those hopes would become fulfilled, the most exciting thought would be that it is a deed of a Serb.

  Nikola Tesla

  People, Humanity, Would Be

  Address at the Belgrade train station, June 1, 1892.

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• Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world. Our hearing extends to a small distance. Our sight is impeded by intervening bodies and shadows. To know each other we must reach beyond the sphere of our sense perceptions. We must transmit our intelligence, travel, transport the materials and transfer the energies necessary for our existence.

  Nikola Tesla

  Distance, Sight, Perception

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “The Nikola Tesla Treasury”, p.508, Simon and Schuster

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• Of all the endless variety of phenomena which nature presents to our senses, there is none that fills our minds with greater wonder than that inconceivably complex movement which, in its entirety, we designate as human life; Its mysterious origin is veiled in the forever impenetrable mist of the past, its character is rendered incomprehensible by its infinite intricacy, and its destination is hidden in the unfathomable depths of the future... .

  Nikola Tesla

  Character, Past, Forever

  Nikola Tesla, David Hatcher Childress (2000). “The Tesla Papers”, p.21, Adventures Unlimited Press

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• So we find that the three possible solutions of the great problem of increasing human energy are answered by the three words: food, peace, work... Their scientific meaning and purpose now clear to me: food to increase the mass, peace to diminish the retarding force, and work to increase the force accelerating human movement.

  Nikola Tesla

  Energy, Three, Purpose

  "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy". "Century" Illustrated Magazine, Volume 60, June 1900.

  21 Copy quote

• Even matter called inorganic, believed to be dead, responds to irritants and gives unmistakable evidence of a living principle within. Everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside.

  Nikola Tesla

  Giving, Principles, Matter

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “The Nikola Tesla Treasury”, p.593, Simon and Schuster

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• 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.

  Nikola Tesla

  Inspirational, Self, Sea

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  30 Copy quote

• We may produce at will, from a sending station. an electrical effect in any particular region of the globe; we may determine the relative position or course of a moving object, such as a vessel at sea, the distance traversed by the same, or its speed.

  Nikola Tesla

  Distance, Moving, Sea

  Nikola Tesla (2016). “My Inventions: And Other Writings”, p.123, Courier Dover Publications

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• Universal peace as a result of cumulative effort through centuries past might come into existence quickly - not unlike a crystal that suddenly forms in a solution which has been slowly prepared. Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.

  Nikola Tesla

  Past, Goal, Effort

  17 Copy quote

• 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.

  Nikola Tesla

  Inspirational, Idlers, May

  "My Inventions" by Nikola Tesla, (Ch. 1), 1919.

  55 Copy quote

• Most certainly, some planets are not inhabited, but others are, and among these there must exist life under all conditions and phases of development.

  Nikola Tesla

  Development, Phases, Planets

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “The Nikola Tesla Treasury”, p.559, Simon and Schuster

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• It has cost me years of thought to arrive at certain results, by many believed to be unattainable, for which there are now numerous claimants, and the number of these is rapidly increasing, like that of the colonels in the South after the war.

  Nikola Tesla

  War, Numbers, Years

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers and Other Essays”, p.20, Simon and Schuster

  18 Copy quote

• The practical success of an idea, irrespective of its inherent merit, is dependent on the attitude of the contemporaries. If timely it is quickly adopted; if not, it is apt to fare like a sprout lured out of the ground by warm sunshine, only to be injured and retarded in its growth by the succeeding frost.

  Nikola Tesla

  Attitude, Sunshine, Ideas

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “The Nikola Tesla Treasury”, p.564, Simon and Schuster

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• Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea or invention instead of being helped and patted, be hampered and ill-treated in its adolescence - by want of means, by selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity and ignorance; that it be attacked and stifled; that it pass through bitter trials and tribulations, through the heartless strife of commercial existence. So do we get our light. So 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.

  Nikola Tesla

  Selfish, Struggle, Heart

  "The Transmission Of Electrical Energy Without Wires As A Means For Furthering Peace". "Electrical World and Engineer", (pp. 21-24), January 7, 1905.

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• To create and to annihilate material substance, cause it to aggregate in forms according to his desire, would be the supreme manifestation of the power of Man's mind, his most complete triumph over the physical world.

  Nikola Tesla

  Men, Mind, Desire

  "Man's Greatest Achievement". "The New York American" Journal, July 6, 1930.

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• I come from a very wiry and long-lived race. Some of my ancestors have been centenarians, and one of them lived 129 years. I am determined to keep up the record and please myself with prospects of great promise. Then again, nature has given me a vivid imagination.

  Nikola Tesla

  Race, Years, Vivid Imagination

  17 Copy quote

• 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

  Views, Space, Doe

  Nikola Tesla (2013). “The Nikola Tesla Treasury”, p.283, Simon and Schuster

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