Nikola Tesla, a Serbian American inventor, engineered the rotating magnetic field and three-phase electric power transmission system, foundational for alternating-current machinery.
He sold his alternating-current system patent rights to George Westinghouse, leading to a power struggle with Edison’s direct-current systems, which Tesla-Westinghouse’s alternating-current approach eventually won.
Tesla also invented the Tesla coil, essential in modern electronics and experimented with shadowgraphs, electrical resonance and various types of lighting.
Despite facing financial struggles and unfulfilled projects, such as the wireless world broadcasting tower funded by J.P. Morgan, Tesla made significant contributions to modern technology.
Posthumously, his works, which faced both admiration and skepticism during his lifetime, are preserved in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, acknowledging his role as a technological pioneer.
I have listed below the best quotes by Nikola Tesla in this blog post.
Best Nikola Tesla Quotes
1. “If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
2. “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
3. “I don’t care that they stole my idea… I care that they don’t have any of their own.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
4. “Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
5. “Of all things, I liked books best.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
6. “The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
7. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
8. “Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
9. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
10. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
11. “A new idea must not be judged by its immediate results.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
12. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
13. “I could only achieve success in my life through self-discipline, and I applied it until my wish and my will became one.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
14. “What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
15. “Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
Top Nikola Tesla Quotes
16. “We all make mistakes, and it is better to make them before we begin.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
17. “All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed – only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
18. “Our entire biological system, the brain, and the Earth itself work on the same frequencies.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
19. “Electric power is everywhere present in unlimited quantities and can drive the world’s machinery without the need of coal, oil, gas, or any other of the common fuels.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
20. “I am even grateful to Einstein and others because through their erroneous theories they lead mankind away from that dangerous path I followed.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
21. “No free energy device will ever be allowed to reach the market.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
22. “If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6, and 9, then you would have the key to the universe.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
23. “My brain is only a receiver in the Universe.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
24. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
25. “Inventors don’t have time for married life.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
26. “It’s not the love you make. It’s the love you give.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
27. “The idea came like a flash of lightning and in an instant, the truth was revealed.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
28. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
29. “I am trying to awake the energy contained in the air. These are the main sources of energy. What is considered as empty space is just a manifestation of matter that is not awakened.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
Famous Nikola Tesla Quotes
30. “Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
31. “I have always been ahead of my time.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
32. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
33. “Love: I recognize the emotion for what it is, an irrational self-destructive impulse, which is disguised as joy.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
34. “When wireless is fully applied the earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of response in every one of its parts.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
35. “Great moments are born great opportunities.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
36. “The Buddhist expresses it in one way, the Christian in another, but both say the same: We are all one.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
37. “Perhaps I failed, but I did my best, these masters of mine may do the rest.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
Nikola Tesla Short Quotes
38. “Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
39. “Each day we go to our work in the hope of discovering.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
40. “The desire that guides me in all I do is the desire to harness the forces of nature to the service of mankind.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
41. “You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
42. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
43. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
44. “There is no energy in matter other than that received from the environment.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
45. “My belief is firm in a law of compensation. The true rewards are ever in proportion to the labor and sacrifices made.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
46. “I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
47. “In a crystal, we have clear evidence of the existence of a formative life principle, and though we cannot understand the life of a crystal, it is nonetheless a living being.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
48. “Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
49. “Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
50. “But instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical deduction, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
51. “Of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
52. “Invention is the most important product of man’s creative brain. The ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of human nature to human needs.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
Inspiring Nikola Tesla Quotes
53. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
54. “In the twenty-first century, the robot will take the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
55. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
56. “There is no subject more captivating, more worthy of study, than nature. To understand this great mechanism, to discover the forces which are active, and the laws which govern them, is the highest aim of the intellect of man.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
57. “I cannot exaggerate the effect of this marvelous sight on my childish imagination. Day after day I asked myself what is electricity and found no answer. Eighty years have gone by since and I still ask the same question, unable to answer it.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
58. “The beauty and the scent of roses can be used as a medicine and the sun rays as a food.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
59. “Crystals are living beings at the beginning of creation.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
60. “The motors I build there were exactly as I imagined them. I made no attempt to improve the design, but merely reproduced the pictures as they appeared to my vision and the operation was always as I expected.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
61. “All matter comes from a primary substance, the luminiferous ether.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
62. “To know each other we must reach beyond the sphere of our sense perceptions.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
63. “We crave for new sensations but soon become indifferent to them. The wonders of yesterday are today common occurrences.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
64. “Within a few years a simple and inexpensive device, readily carried about, will enable one to receive on land or sea the principal news, to hear a speech, a lecture, a song or play of a musical instrument, conveyed from any other region of the globe.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
65. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
66. “To create and to annihilate material substance, cause it to aggregate in forms according to his desire, would be the supreme manifestation of the power of Man’s mind, his most complete triumph over the physical world…” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
67. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
68. “Nature may reach the same result in many ways.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
69. “Even matter called inorganic, believed to be dead, responds to irritants and gives unmistakable evidence of a living principle within. Everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
70. “The last 29 days of the month are the toughest!” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
71. “The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
72. “My Mother had taught me to seek all truth in the Bible.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
73. “My wireless transmitter does not use Hertzian waves, which are a grievous myth, but sound waves in the aether…” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
74. “It is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering – only expensive – blind, faint-hearted, doubting world.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
75. “Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of energy. I never paid such a price.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
76. “It is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
77. “It seems that I have always been ahead of my time. I had to wait nineteen years before Niagara was harnessed by my system, fifteen years before the basic inventions for wireless which I gave to the world in 1893 were applied universally.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
Nikola Tesla Quotes for Motivation
78. “So we find that the three possible solutions of the great problem of increasing human energy are answered by the three words: food, peace, work.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
79. “Is nature a giant cat? If so, who strokes its back?” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
80. “When natural inclination develops into a passionate desire, one advances towards his goal in seven-league boots.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
81. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
82. “The entire Earth will be converted into a huge brain.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
83. “The idea of atomic energy is illusionary but it has taken so powerful a hold on the minds, that although I have preached against it for twenty-five years, there are still some who believe it to be realizable.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
84. “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.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
85. “If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn’t sweat as much.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
86. “The spread of civilization may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next to a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
87. “So astounding are the facts in this connection, that it would seem as though the Creator, himself had electrically designed this planet…” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
88. “The future will show whether my foresight is as accurate now as it has proved heretofore.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
89. “My ear barely caught signals coming in regular succession which could not have been produced on earth…” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
90. “To conquer by sheer force is becoming harder and harder every day. Defensive is getting continuously the advantage of offensive, as we progress in the satanic science of destruction.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
91. “Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using 17 of my patents.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
92. “All the great religions contain wise prescriptions relating to the conduct of life, which hold good now as they did when they were promulgated.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
93. “Up to that time I never realized that I possessed any particular gift of discovery, but Lord Rayleigh, whom I always considered as an ideal man of science, had said so and if that was the case, I felt that I should concentrate on some big idea.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
94. “I am equally proud of my Serbian origin and my Croatian fatherland.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
95. “I predict that very shortly the old-fashioned incandescent lamp, having a filament heated to brightness by the passage of electric current through it, will entirely disappear.” ~ (Nikola Tesla).
Short Biography of Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor and engineer who played a pivotal role in developing the modern alternating current (AC) electrical system.
Born in the Austrian Empire, he studied engineering and physics but didn’t complete his degree.
| Full Name | Nikola Tesla |
| Born | 10 July 1856 Smiljan, Austrian Empire (now Croatia) |
| Died | 7 January 1943 (aged 86) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting Place | Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade, Serbia (44.8051°N 20.4707°E) |
| Citizenship | Austria (1856–1891), United States (1891–1943) |
| Alma Mater | Graz University of Technology (dropped out) |
| Occupations | Inventor, Engineer, Futurist |
| Discipline | Electrical and mechanical |
| Projects | Alternating Current, High-Voltage, High-Frequency Power Experiments |
In the 1880s, Tesla moved to the United States and briefly worked with Edison before founding his own companies in New York to explore electrical and mechanical devices.
His innovations include the AC induction motor and early experiments in wireless communication and power distribution.
Tesla’s work laid foundational technologies for modern electrical systems and methods of communication.
Quick Facts about Nikola Tesla
- Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, Croatia.
- Tesla died on January 7, 1943, in his room at The New Yorker Hotel.
- He moved to New York in 1884 to work as an engineer at the Continental Edison Company.
- Tesla has over 300 patents across five continents.
- Tesla’s mother, Djuka Mandic, inspired him to pursue his love for inventing.
- Tesla witnessed the death of his brother Daniel in a riding accident.
- Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla shared a close friendship for nearly two decades.
- Tesla visualized his inventions in 3D without needing to sketch them.
- Tesla partnered with George Westinghouse to compete against Thomas Edison’s DC system.
- Contrary to popular belief, neither Tesla nor Edison invented the light bulb.
- Tesla pioneered radio communication before Guglielmo Marconi.
- After a fire destroyed his New York lab, Tesla moved to Colorado Springs to continue his work.
- J.P. Morgan financed Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower, which aimed to transmit electricity wirelessly.
- Tesla suffered from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, with a fixation on the number three.
- Tesla’s experiments in Manhattan once almost caused an earthquake.
- Tesla’s AC system remains the global standard for power transmission.
- Tesla had a deep affection for a white pigeon he claimed loved him.
- To fund his inventions, Tesla once resorted to digging ditches.
- Tesla’s experiments in Colorado Springs caused city-wide blackouts and electrocuted butterflies.
- Tesla’s ideas paved the way for modern technologies like smartphones and wireless internet.
- Tesla lived in various hotels throughout his life, often relying on wealthy friends to cover costs.
- Tesla was known for his height, style, and keeping to himself, attracting attention at social events.
- Entrepreneur Elon Musk has expressed admiration for Edison over Tesla.
- The Tesla Coil is one of Tesla’s lasting inventions, influencing numerous technologies.
- Many of Tesla’s inventions remain confidential, seized by the U.S. Government after his death.
- Tesla never married and remained deeply committed to his work until his death.
- Despite his achievements, Tesla faced financial difficulties throughout his career.
- Tesla was posthumously recognized for his pioneering work in radio technology by the Supreme Court.
- Tesla and Edison were direct competitors, famously clashing in the “Current Wars.”
- Tesla’s intense focus on work often led to neglect of his personal health and social life.
Top Questions about Nikola Tesla
A: Nikola Tesla is renowned for pioneering the generation, transmission, and use of alternating current (AC) electricity, which is capable of being transmitted over longer distances than direct current.
A: Tesla’s 369 theory found significance in the numbers 3, 6, and 9 while studying circles, specifically noting that sums of the degrees in a circle (360) ultimately reduce to 9 (3 + 6 + 0).
A: Nikola Tesla was initially buried at Ferncliff Cemetery, New York, after his death in 1943. Later, his remains were cremated and his ashes were moved to an urn in the shape of a sphere at the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.
A: Despite his professional achievements, Nikola Tesla struggled with mental illnesses, which contributed to his portrayal as the “mad scientist” archetype, and he lived a life marked by periods of solitude.
A: Djuka Mandic, Tesla’s mother, greatly inspired him by inventing household appliances and encouraging his interests, leading him to a prolific career in science and technology.
A: Nikola Tesla witnessed the tragic death of his brother Daniel in a riding accident, an event that deeply affected him and is believed to have influenced his later mental health issues.
A: Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain shared a close friendship, bonding over their interests and spending time together in Tesla’s laboratory. Their friendship lasted until Twain’s death in 1910.
A: Unlike many inventors who sketched their ideas, Nikola Tesla visualized his inventions in three dimensions in his mind, which was a testament to his exceptional mental imagery skills.
A: Tesla’s collaboration with George Westinghouse, which began after Tesla left Thomas Edison’s company, led to the development of a successful alternating current system and outcompeted Edison at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
A: It is a common misconception that Tesla invented the light bulb; however, the light bulb was initially developed by Warren de La Rue and Joseph Swan, and later improved by Thomas Edison, not Tesla.
A: Nikola Tesla demonstrated short-range radio communication technology before Guglielmo Marconi, who is often credited with its invention.
A: After a devastating fire destroyed his New York laboratory, Nikola Tesla moved to Colorado Springs, where he established a new laboratory and continued his experiments.
A: J.P. Morgan initially financed Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower project but withdrew support when he learned that Tesla aimed to use it for the wireless transmission of electricity, a non-profitable venture.
A: Nikola Tesla nearly caused an earthquake in Manhattan due to his experiments with an electro-mechanical oscillator that matched the resonant frequency of his building.
A: Nikola Tesla, who suffered from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, was fixated on the number 3, to the extent of requiring hotel room numbers divisible by 3.
