Nikola Tesla Quotes
That is the trouble with many inventors; they lack patience. They lack the willingness to work a thing out slowly and clearly and sharply in their mind, so that they can actually 'feel it work.' They want to try their first idea right off; and the result is they use up lots of money and lots of good material, only to find eventually that they are working in the wrong direction. We all make mistakes, and it is better to make them before we begin.
March 31st, 1895Source:
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.
July, 1934
It is true that some of them have had to do with wireless telegraphy and that in addition to the tower and poles there is a hole dug in the ground. This is 150 feet deep and is used in these experiments. The people about there, had they been awake instead of asleep, at other times would have seen even stranger things. Some day, but not at this time, I shall make an announcement of something that I never once dreamed of.
July 17th, 1903Source:
One cannot help looking at that little bulb of Crookes with a feeling akin to awe, when he considers all that it has done for scientific progress - first, the magnificent wonderful achievements of Roentgen. Possibly, it may still contain a grateful Asmodeus, who will be let out of his narrow prison cell by a lucky student. At times it has seemed to me as though I myself heard a whispering voice, and I have searched eagerly among my dusty bulbs and bottles. I fear my imagination has deceived me, but there they are still, my dusty bulbs, and I am still listening hopefully.
March 11th, 1896Source:
Had Tesla published the measuring methods he developed in New York and Colorado Springs, his name would probably be frequently encountered in earlier textbooks and handbooks on electrical measurements at high frequencies. As it is, we can only remark his exceptional ingenuity in designing measuring devices and the accuracy with which he determined the resonance of oscillatory circuits. An especially interesting feature is his method using a lamp already heated up by a supplementary power source, greatly increasing its sensitivity to small amplitude changes around the resonance peak of the oscillatory circuit.1978
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.
September 24th, 1890
I have studied cosmic rays to learn that the theory of relativity has been what I long considered it — "a beggar dressed in purple which the ignorant mistake for a king."
July 11th, 1935
One of the great events in my life was my first meeting with Edison. This wonderful man, who had received no scientific training, yet had accomplished so much, filled me with amazement. I felt that the time I had spent studying languages, literature and art was wasted; though later, of course, I learned this was not so.
April, 1921
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.
July, 1934
...With these developments we have every reason to anticipate that in a time not very distant most telegraphic messages across the oceans will be transmitted without cables. For short distances we need a 'wireless' telephone, which requires no expert operators...
June, 1900