Quotes from Nikola Tesla

Of the various branches of electrical investigation, perhaps the most interesting and immediately the most promising is that dealing with alternating currents.

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.

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.

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.

Of all things I liked books best. My father had a large library and whenever I could manage I tried to satisfy my passion for reading.

The beauty and the scent of roses can be used as a medicine and the sun rays as a food.

We should begin at the very root from which we spring, we should effect a radical reform in the character of the food.

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.

When wireless is fully applied the earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of response in every one of its parts.

The future will show whether my foresight is as accurate now as it has proved heretofore.

When natural inclination develops into a passionate desire, one advances towards his goal in seven-league boots.

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.

The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.

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.

Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.

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.

The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.

If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world.

I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.

What we now want is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth, and the elimination of egoism and pride which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife... Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment...

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.

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.

One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

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 have really worked, is mine