The Mother of Nikola Tesla

Like many another great man, Nikola Tesla, the World-famous inventor and scientist, is inclined to speak frankly of his life and relates an incident which shows how great is a mother's instinctive ability to overcome a crisis in the careers of her children.

When I was about twenty, I contracted a mania for gambling. We played for very high stakes; and more than one of my companions gambled away the full value of his home. My parents were greatly worried by my gambling habits. My father especially was stern and often expressed his contempt at my wanton waste of time and money. However, I never would promise him to give up gambling but instead defended myself with a bad philosophy that is very common: I told him that I could stop whenever I pleased, but that it was not worth while to give up gambling because the pleasure was more to me than the joys of paradise.

"My mother understood human nature better and never chided. She knew that a man cannot be saved from his own foolishness or vice by someone else's efforts or protests, but only by the use of his own will. One afternoon, when I had lost all my money, but still was craving to play, she came to me with a roll of bills in her hand — a large sum of money for those times and conditions — and said, "Here, Niko. Take these. They're all I have. But the sooner you lose everything we own, the better it will be. Then I know you will get over this." After she has spoken, she kissed me.

"So blinded was I by my passion that I took the money, gambled the whole night, and lost everything, as usual. It was morning when I emerged from the den, and I went on a long walk through sunlit woods pondering my utter folly. The sight of nature had brought me to my senses, and my mother's act and faith came vividly to mind. Before I left the woods, I had conquered this passion. I went home to my mother and told her I never would gamble again. And there never has been the slightest danger of my breaking the promise.