The book of nature

 

Quotes pending to verify:

 

The Eternal Source of Energy of the Universe , Origin and Intensity of Cosmic Rays - New York - October 13, 1932 and Prepared Statement of Tesla (For interview with press on 81st birthday observance):

 

"There is no more energy in matter than that received from the enviornment"

 

 

“Electric power is everywhere present in unlimited quantities and can drive the world’s machinery without the need for coal, oil, or gas.”

 

 

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”

 

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

 

 

“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.”

 

 

When woman is boss - Colliers - January 30, 1926

 

“But the female mind has demonstrated a capacity for all the mental acquirements and achievements of men, and as generations ensue that capacity will be expanded; the average woman will be as well educated as the average man, and then better educated, for the dormant faculties of her brain will be stimulated to an activity that will be all the more intense and powerful because of centuries of repose. Woman will ignore precedent and startle civilization with their progress.”

 

 

A Visit to Nikola Tesla - by Dragislav L. Petkoviæ in Politika - April 1927:

“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”

 

 

A Visit to Nikola Tesla - by Dragislav L. Petkoviæ in Politika - April 1927:

 

"Money does not represent such a value as men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries enabling mankind to have a little easier life"

 

 

 

The Problem of Increasing Human Energy - With Special Reference to Harvesting the Sun's Energy - Century Illustrated Magazine - June 1900:

 

“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more”

 

The Problem of Increasing Human Energy - The Century Magazine - June, 1900:

 

“The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of a planter -- for the future. His duty is to lay foundation of those who are to come and point the way.”

 

 

Some Experiments in Tesla's Laboratory with Currents of High Potential and High Frequency - The Electrical Review - March 29, 1899:

 

“No desire for material advantages has animated me in all this work, though I hope, for the sake of the continuance of my labors, that these will soon follow, naturally, as a compensation for valuable services rendered to science and industry.”

 

 

A Machine to End War - Liberty - February, 1935:

 

“Life is and will ever remain an equation incapable of solution, but it contains certain known factors.”

 

 

Radio Power Will Revolutionize the World - Modern Mechanix & Inventions - July, 1934:

 

“The desire that guides me in all I do is the desire to harness the forces of nature to the service of mankind.”

 

 

The Problem of Increasing Human Energy - The Century Magazine - June, 1900:

 

 

“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.”

 

 

The Problem of Increasing Human Energy - The Century Magazine - June, 1900:

 

"Every effort which is scientifically applied, rational, useful, or practical, must be in the direction in which the mass is moving. The practical, rational man, the observer, the man of business, he who reasons, calculates, or determines in advance, carefully applies his effort so that when coming into effect it will be in the direction of the movement, making it thus most efficient, and in this knowledge and ability lies the secret of his success. Every new fact discovered, every new experience or new element added to our knowledge and entering into the domain of reason, affects the same and, therefore, changes the direction of movement, which, however, must always take place along the resultant of all those efforts which, at that time, we designate as reasonable, that is, self-preserving, useful, profitable, or practical. These efforts concern our daily life, our necessities and comforts, our work and business, and it is these which drive man onward".

 

Great Scientific Discovery Impends - Galveston Daily News, Galveston, Texas, March 13, 1932, Page 11:

 

"People could prolong their lives considerably if they would but make the effort. Human beings do so many things that pave the way to an early grave".

 

 

Mr. Tesla on the Wireless Transmission of Power - New York World - May 19th, 1907:

 

“If the genius of invention were to reveal to-morrow the secret of immortality, of eternal beauty and youth, for which all humanity is aching, the same inexorable agents which prevent a mass from changing suddenly its velocity would likewise resist the force of the new knowledge until time gradually modifies human thought.”

 

The Problem of Increasing Human Energy - Century Illustrated Magazine - June 1900:

On the general principles the raising of cattle as a means of providing food is objectionable, because, in the sense interpreted above, it must undoubtedly tend to the addition of mass of a "smaller velocity." It is certainly preferable to raise vegetables, and I think, therefore, that vegetarianism is a commendable departure from the established barbarous habit. That we can subsist on plant food and perform our work even to advantage is not a theory, but a well-demonstrated fact.

 

 

My Inventions - Chapter 5:

 

“We crave for new sensations but soon become indifferent to them. The wonders of yesterday are today common occurrences”

 

 

My Inventions - Chapter 1: Early Life - 1919

 

"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".

 

 

In Cleveland Moffitt, “A Talk with Tesla” - Atlanta Constitution - 7 Jun 1896:

 

"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".

 

 

Experiments with Alternate Currents of Very High Frequency and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination - A lecture delivered before the AIEE (Columbia College) - May 20, 1891 and Presentation of the Edison Medal to Nikola Tesla: Minutes of the annual meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, held at the Engineering Societies building - New York City - May 18, 1917::

 

In how far we can understand the world around us is the ultimate thought of every student of nature. The coarseness of our senses prevents us from recognizing the ulterior construction of matter, and astronomy, this grandest and most positive of natural sciences, can only teach us something that happens, as it were, in our immediate neighborhood; of the remoter portions of the boundless universe, with its numberless stars and suns, we know nothing. But far beyond the limit of perception of our senses the spirit still can guide us, and so we may hope that even these unknown worlds -infinitely small and great—may in a measure become known to us. Still, even if this knowledge should reach us, the searching mind will find a barrier, perhaps forever unsurpassable, to the true recognition of that which seems to be, the mere appearance of which is the only and slender basis of all our philosophy.

 

 

What Science May Achieve This Year by Nikola Tesla - Denver Rocky Mountain News - January 16th, 1910:

“We build but to tear down. Most of our work and resource is squandered. Our onward march is marked by devastation. Everywhere there is an appalling loss of time, effort and life. A cheerless view, but true.”

 

 

A Machine to End War - Liberty - February 1937:

 

"While I am not a believer in the orthodox sense, I commend religion, first, because every individual should have some ideal — religious, artistic, scientific, or humanitarian — to give significance to his life. Second, because all the great religions contain wise prescriptions relating to the conduct of life, which hold good now as they did when they were promulgated".

 

     "There is no conflict between the ideal of religion and the ideal of science, but science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine. Nothing enters our minds or determines our actions which is not directly or indirectly a response to stimuli beating upon our sense organs from without. Owing to the similarity of our construction and the sameness of our environment, we respond in like manner to similar stimuli, and from the concordance of our reactions, understanding is born. In the course of ages, mechanisms of infinite complexity are developed, but what we call "soul " or "spirit," is nothing more than the sum of the functionings of the body. When this functioning ceases, the "soul" or the "spirit" ceases likewise".

 

 

On light and other high frequency phenomena - A lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, February 1893, and before the National Electric Light Association, St. Louis, March, 1893:

 

“Nature may reach the same result in many ways. Like a wave in the physical world, in the infinite ocean of the medium which pervades all, so in the world of organisms, in life, an impulse started proceeds onward, at times, may be, with the speed of light, at times, again, so slowly that for ages and ages it seems to stay, passing through processes of a complexity inconceivable to men, but in all its forms, in all its stages, its energy ever and ever integrally present. A single ray of light from a distant star falling upon the eye of a tyrant in bygone times may have altered the course of his life, may have changed the destiny of nations, may have transformed the surface of the globe, so intricate, so inconceivably complex are the processes in Nature. In no way can we get such an overwhelming idea of the grandeur of Nature than when we consider, that in accordance with the law of the conservation of energy, throughout the Infinite, the forces are in a perfect balance, and hence the energy of a single thought may determine the motion of a universe.”

 

 

Tesla’s Ray - Time - July 23rd, 1934:

 

“The opinion of the world does not affect me. I have placed as the real values in my life what follows when I am dead.”

 

 

World System of Wireless Transmission of Energy - Telegraph and Telegraph Age - October 16, 1927:

 

“Technical invention is akin to architecture and the experts must in time come to the same conclusions I have reached long ago. Sooner or later my power system will have to be adopted in its entirety and so far as I am concerned it is as good as done".

 

 

Tesla, Man and Inventor - New York Times - March 31st, 1895:

“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.”

 

 

My Inventions - Chapter 6: The Magnifying Transmitter - 1919:

"War can not be avoided until the physical cause for its recurrence is removed and this, in the last analysis, is the vast extent of the planet on which we live. Only though annihilation of distance in every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport of passengers and supplies and transmission of energy will conditions be brought about some day, insuring permanency of friendly relations. What we now want most is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth and the elimination of that fanatic devotion to exalted ideals of national egoism and pride, which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife. No league or parliamentary act of any kind will ever prevent such a calamity. These are only new devices for putting the weak at the mercy of the strong.

 

I have expressed myself in this regard fourteen years ago, when a combination of a few leading governments, a sort of Holy alliance, was advocated by the late Andrew Carnegie, who may be fairly considered as the father of this idea, having given to it more publicity and impetus than anybody else prior to the efforts of the President. While it can not be denied that such aspects might be of material advantage to some less fortunate peoples, it can not attain the chief objective sought. Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment and merging of races, and we are still far from this blissful realization, because few indeed, will admit the reality that God made man in His image in which case all earth men are alike. There is in fact but one race, of many colors. Christ is but one person, yet he is of all people, so why do some people think themselves better than some other people"

 

 

 

Quotes pending to verify:

"Originality consists in returning to the origin, so original is that it returns to the simplicity of the first solutions"

 

"Originality should not be sought, for then extravagance"

 

"The great book, always open and which we have to make an effort to read, is that of Nature, and other books are taken from him, and in them are the errors and misinterpretations of men"

 

"The closed curve is the sense of the limitation as well as the stright line is the expression of the infinite"

 

"Paraboloids, hyperboloids and helical, constantly varying the incident light, have their own wealth of nuances that make unnecessary ornamentation and even modeling"

 

"There is not any reason to not try something just because nobody tried before"

 

"It is necessary to alternate reflection and action, which are completed and correct each other. To advance are also needed the two legs: the action and reflection"

 

"With pots of flowers, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, encouraged by the clucking of hens, the birds singing and insects, and the Prades mountains in the background, I got the purest and most pleasurable images of nature, which is always my teacher".

"You have studied and are surprised of what Im doing, but I also studied and Im still studying and working incessantly"

"When something is in the way of perfection, you have to squeeze it until you get to be quite right"

 

"Sacrifice is the decrease of the self without compensation"

 

"Dimensional works in harmony born of light, giving relief and decorate"

 

"To do the right thing is necessary: first, love, second, the technique"

 

"The creation continues incessantly through the media of man. But man does not create...he discovers. Those seeking the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator. Copiers do not collaborate. Because of this, originality consists in returning to the origin"

 

"The feeling is never wrong, because it is life, what is wrong is the head, which is but an instrument of control"

"Life is a battle. To combat require strength and power is virtue, and this can only be sustained with spiritual cultivation"

"The evidence is in the eye of the spirit as vision to the body"

 

"Despair comes to check insurmountable obstacles in the implementation of projects that have been cherished for so long"

 

"Life is love and love is surrender. When there are two that are delivered, the whole life becomes bright, exemplary"

"Remember that no one is useless, all serve, but not all have the same capacity"

 

"Everything comes from the great book of nature, the works of men are as a printed book"

 

"The architecture is the arrangement of light, the sculpture is the play of light"

 

"The architect is the synthetic man, who is able to see things together before they are made"

"The right design is usually more difficult to get when using algebra, and it is usually much more efficient when the geometry is observed directly"

 

"The architect shouldn't talk vaguely like the ornamentist, but concretely.
His language is geometry.  Find the very forms of each function (which give character) is the architect"

"The architect of the future will be based on imitation of nature, because it is the most rational, durable and economical of all methods"

 

"The Temple of the Sagrada Família represent the future of modern Catalonia"

 

"The human work can not exceed the Divine, so the Sagrada Familia will have 170 meters high, 3 meters less than the mountain of Montjuïc"

 

"The work of the Holy Family is going slowly, because my client is in no hurry"

"Architects who do not make sense and constructive plastic and want to meet with the scientific abstraction, labor in vain"

 

"It is necessary, without forcing anything, leave things open asymmetry stepped buildings, unequal volumes, etc"

 

"Build! Build Beauty! Search in nature mystery image and turn it into architecture. Forging the way of the idea: it was my alchemical work. My dream: A Mediterranean, beautiful, big Barcelona .... Being a channel for Beauty is the splendor of truth, discover the laws of the universe all its secrets"

 

"My ideas are of indisputable logic, the only thing that makes me doubt is that they have been applied earlier"

 

 

 

"It will be found that everything depends on the composition of the forces with which these particles of matter act upon one another: and from these forces, as a matter of fact, all phenomena of Nature take their origin".

 

Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis

 

 

"Were it not for gravity one man might hurl another by a puff of his breath into the depths of space, beyond recall for all eternity".

Theoria, 1758

 

 

 

Quotes pending to verify:

 

Quote taken from The Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press unless otherwise noted. Walter Isaacson who wrote on page 385 in his landmark book on Einstein, Einstein: His Life and Universe:

 

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

 

"Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone".

 

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."

 

"The only real valuable thing is intuition."

 

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

 

 

Palo Alto, CA: The Society for General Systems Research, 1956), 24:

 

"The world that we have made as a result of the level of thinking that we have done sofar, has created problems we cannot solve at the level of thinking at which we createdthem . . . . We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humankind is tosurvive."

 

 

Letter to Cornelius Lanczos at Princeton 1942. The quote appear in the book "Albert Einstein, the Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives" (Courtesy of Barbara Wolff, Einstein archive, Hebrew University, Jerusalem):

 

 "You are the only person I know who has the same attitude towards physics as I have: belief in the comprehension of reality through something basically simple and unified... It seems hard to sneak a look at God's cards. But that He plays dice and uses 'telepathic' methods... is something that I cannot believe for a single moment."

 

---

 

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking"

 

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value"

 

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education"

 

"The learning is experience. All the rest is information"

 

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better"

 

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

 

"Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character"

 

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

 

Many famous names have been linked to sayings of this type including Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, and Albert Einstein:

 

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new"

 

---

 

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

 

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

 

Albert Einstein wrote an essay in 1936 that included a commensurate remark about education, but he credited the words to an unnamed “wit”:

 

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

 

---

 

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

 

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

 

"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

 

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

 

Albert Einstein, giving credit to Mileva Maric for her work together with Einstein on the "Theory of Relativity":

 

"I was proud and lucky when we were together to finish our work on the "Theory of Relativity"

 

Albert Einstein quote for Mileva Maric, in 1905:

 

"Everything that I achieved in my life, I must thank Mileva. She is my genius inspirer, my protector against the hardships of life and science. Without her, my work would have never have been started nor finished."

 

 

This quote is probablly not originally by Albert Einstein and cannot be verifyed to know if he said anything similar at anytime. Nobody attributed it to Einstein until the 90's:

 

 The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

 

---

 

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

 

"Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I do not doubt that the lion belongs to it even though he cannot at once reveal himself because of his enormous size."

 

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."

 

"Truth is what stands the test of experience."

 

 

On February 5, 1930 Albert Einstein wrote a letter to his son Eduard in German. The quote appear in the book by Walter Isaacson editor called “Einstein: His Life and Universe” 2007 (Courtesy of Barbara Wolff, Einstein archives, Hebrew University, Jerusalem):

 

“It is the same with people as it is with riding a bike. Only when moving can one comfortably maintain one’s balance.”

 

---

 

"Human knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth."

 

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."

 

"Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen."

 

 

 

Quotes pending to verify:

“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

 

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”

 

“The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.”

 

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

 

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”

 

“The knowledge of all things is possible”

 

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”

 

“While human ingenuity may devise various inventions to the same ends, it will never devise anything more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than nature does, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.”

 

“A wave is never found alone, but is mingled with the other waves.”

 

“The mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.”

 

“The organ of perception acts more readily than judgment.”

 

“Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail.”

 

“One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all.”

 

“life without love, is no life at all”

 

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

 

“Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.”

 

“What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art”

 

“The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.”

 

“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.”

 

“The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.”

 

“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.”

 

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”

 

“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose”

 

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”

 

“He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.”

 

“He who does not oppose evil......commands it to be done.”

 

“Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.”

 

“Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to no purpose before so great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask. Nothing is hidden under the sun.”

 

“Man has much power of discourse which for the most part is vain and false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a small truth is better than a great lie.”

 

“You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself...the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. ...And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.”

 

“The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain”

 

“I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.”

 

“I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death”

 

“As you cannot do what you want, Want what you can do”

 

“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”

 

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

 

“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.”

 

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.”

 

“The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance”

 

“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.”

 

“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”

 

“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."

 

“All our knowledge hast its origins in our perceptions … In nature there is no effect without a cause … Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments … Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass.”

 

“All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge.”

 

“He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.”

 

“Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!”

 

“average human “looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking.”

 

“It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.”

 

“In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.”

 

“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. So we must stretch ourselves to the very limits of human possibility. Anything less is a sin against both God and man.”

 

“Experience is never at fault; it is only your judgment that is in error, in promising itself such results from experience as are not caused by our experiments. For having given a beginning, what follows from it must necessarily be a natural development of such a beginning, unless it has been subject to a contrary influence, while, if it is affected by any contrary influence, the result which ought to follow from the aforesaid beginning, will be found to partake of this contrary influence in a greater or lesser degree in proportion as the said influence is more or less powerful than the aforesaid beginning.”

 

“If you find from your own experience that something is a fact and it contradicts what some authority has written down, then you must abandon the authority and base your reasoning on your own findings.”

 

“In time and with water, everything changes”

 

 

Quotes pending to verify:

 

"In the immense majority of children, there is the raw material of a good citizen and also the raw material of a criminal. The raw material of instinct is ethically neutral, and can be shaped either to good or evil by the influence of the environment".

 

"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education".

 

"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true".

 

"Since one never knows what will be the line of advance, it is always most rash to condemn what is not quite in the fashion of the moment.”

 

"It is a dangerous error to confound truth with matter-of-fact. Our life is governed not only by facts, but by hopes; the kind of truthfulness which sees nothing but facts is a prison for the human spirit".

 

"For the first time in history, it is now possible, owing to the industrial revolution and its byproducts, to create a world where everybody shall have a reasonable chance of happiness. Physical evil can, if we choose, be reduced to very small proportions. It would be possible, by organization and science, to feed and house the whole population of the world, not luxuriously, but sufficiently to prevent great suffering. It would be possible to combat disease, and to make chronic ill-health very rare. … All this is of such immeasurable value to human life that we dare not oppress the sort of education which will tend to bring it about. in such an education, applied science will have to be the chief ingredient. Without physics and physiology and psychology, we cannot build the new world".

 

“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.”

 

"Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance".

 

"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd".

 

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric".

 

"If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way".

 

"If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years".

 

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man".

 

"In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying".

 

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.”

 

"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate".

 

"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny".

 

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts".

 

"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand".

 

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left".

 

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong".

 

"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind".

 

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead".

 

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom".

 

"The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation".

 

"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise".

 

"It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain options makes it impossible to earn a living".

 

"Construction and destruction alike satisfy the will to power, but construction is more difficult as a rule, and therefore gives more satisfaction to the person who can achieve it. … We construct when we increase the potential energy of the system in which we are interested, and we destroy when we diminish the potential energy. … Whatever may be thought of these definitions, we all know in practice whether an activity is to be regarded as constructive or destructive, except in a few cases where a man professes to be destroying with a view to rebuilding and are not sure whether he is sincere. The first beginnings of many virtues arise out of experiencing the joys of construction. Those whose intelligence is adequate should be encouraged in using their imaginations to think out more productive ways of utilizing existing social forces or creating new ones".

 

 

Quotes pending to verify:

 

“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.”

 

“Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive.”

 

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

 

“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognise that we ought to control our thoughts.”

 

“Great is the power of steady misrepresentation”

 

“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows...There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whiles this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

 

“As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.”

 

“Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult--at least I have found it so--than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind.

 

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”

 

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

 

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

 

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”

 

“I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.”

 

“I am not apt to follow blindly the lead of other men”

 

“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.”

 

“The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.”

 

“We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.”

 

“A mans friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.”

“It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. . .
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”

 

“Blushing is the most peculiar and most human of all expressions.”

 

“Besides love and sympathy, animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts which in us would be called moral.”

 

 

 

• http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
• http://quoteinvestigator.com/category/albert-einstein/
• http://innovationcrescendo.com/tag/nikola-tesla/
• http://selfstillness.org/3%20Page%20-%20In%20The%20Media/Self%20Enquiry%20by%20Communication/Content/Nikola%20Tesla%20Quotations%20ONLINE.pdf