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.
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: Dreams
The word dreams carries two meanings here that are rarely separated: what we dream at night and what we aim at. Older cultures did not draw a firm line between them — dreams were read as messages and aspirations as a summons. Only more recent usage splits the two, and gives nearly all the weight to the second.
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.
- Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter.
- Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.
More on Dreams
- In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm; in the real world all rests on perseverance.— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.— Mark Twain
- The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.— Friedrich Nietzsche
- Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.— Theodore Roosevelt
- Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will.— George Bernard Shaw