Nikola Tesla Books
Tesla's Thoughts about Work and Invention
My life has been a continual oscillation between the agony of failure and the rapture of success.
I do not need help. The more difficult, the better. I work best when struggling.
To be alone is the secret of invention; to be alone is the moment when ideas are born.
Man was born to work, to suffer and to fight, for he who does not do so must go under.
My Life Was Little Short of Continous Rapture
The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of the forces of nature to human needs. This is the difficult task of the inventor who is often misunderstood and unrewarded. But he finds ample compensation in the pleasing exercises of his powers and in the knowledge of being one of that exceptionally privileged class without whom the race would have long ago perished in the bitter struggle against pitiless elements.
Speaking for myself, I have already had more than my full measure of this exquisite enjoyment, so much that for many years my life was little short of continuous rapture. I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labor, 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. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts.
(From Nikola Tesla's autobiography)
