Sayings
Twelve quotations you can trust — every one traceable to Tesla's published writings. The internet attributes dozens of sayings to Tesla; most are unverifiable, and those are kept off this page.
1. On invention
“The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919), ch. 1.
2. On hard work
“I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labour, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919).
3. The inventor’s thrill
“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.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919).
4. On books
“Of all things, I liked books best.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919).
5. On virtue and failing
“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919).
6. On mental invention
“I needed no models, drawings or experiments; I could picture them all as real in my mind.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919) — on his method of working out inventions entirely in imagination before building.
7. On building from crude ideas
“The moment one constructs a device to carry into practice a crude idea, he finds himself unavoidably engrossed with the details and defects of the apparatus.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919).
8. On self-knowledge
“Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919).
9. On instinct
“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.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919).
10. On the present and the future
“The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”
Source: “My Inventions,” Electrical Experimenter (1919).
11. On human unity
“Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable.”
Source: “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Century Magazine (June 1900).
12. On the individual and mankind
“The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away, but man remains.”
Source: “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,” Century Magazine (June 1900).
Famous “Tesla quotes” that are not on this page
The following are widely shared as Tesla quotations, but no reliable source traces them to his writings or verified interviews, so they are excluded:
- “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” — No verified source; likely apocryphal.
- “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.” — No verified source.
- “My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge…” — No verified source.
- “If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have a key to the universe.” — No verified source; see Myth vs. Record.
If a credible primary source for any of these surfaces, it will be added with citation. See methodology for the quotation policy.
Source notes
- “My Inventions” was serialized in Electrical Experimenter (1919) and is in the public domain; quotations above follow that text.
- “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy” appeared in Century Magazine, June 1900 (public domain).
- Excluded-quotation verdicts reflect the absence of any traceable primary source in Tesla’s published writings, lectures, patents, or contemporaneous press interviews known to the biographical literature (Carlson 2013; Cheney 1981; Seifer 1996). Absence of evidence is noted as such, not as proof he never said them.