Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter.
Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was born in Smiljan, in the Lika region, and studied in Graz and Prague before leaving for the United States in 1884. His work on alternating current laid the foundation of modern electrical power systems. He filed around three hundred patents, and died without property in a New York hotel.
About this theme: Philosophy
Philosophy always sits awkwardly in a collection of quotations: systems do not compress into a sentence, and that is exactly what is asked of them. Kant's ethics or Nietzsche's critique of morality do not fit into a single line without loss. What survives is the phrasing — often brilliant, but lifted out of the context that gave it weight.
More by Nikola Tesla
- The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.
- If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world.
- The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result; his duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way.
- Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.
More on Philosophy
- The unexamined life is not worth living.— Socrates
- Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.— Baruch Spinoza
- The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.— Michel de Montaigne
- A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.— Blaise Pascal