Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree, gaining practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His alternating current (AC) induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.

Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/ generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wireless-controlled boat, one of the first-ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.

After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943.Tesla’s work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.

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“My brain is only a receiver,
in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain
knowledge, strength and inspiration.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“I hope that it will also be demonstrated soon that in my experiments in the West
I was not merely beholding a vision, but had caught sight of a great and profound truth.”

“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.”

“It’s not the love you make. It’s the love you give.”

“We are all one. Only egos, beliefs, and fears separate us.”

“Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world
that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves.”

“The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away,
but man remains.”

“It is not in the shallow physical imitation of men that women will assert first their equality and later their superiority,
but in the awakening of the intellect of women.”

“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.”

“Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind.
Be alone–that is the secret of invention.”

“One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”

“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.”

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

“The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth,
we become in tune with this great power.”

“All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception,
filling all space, the akasha or luminiferousether, which is acted upon by the life giving Prana or creative force,
calling into existence, in never-ending cycles all things and phenomena.”

“Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world.”

“To know each other we must reach beyond the sphere of our sense perceptions.”

“A new world must be born,
a world that would justify the sacrifices offered by humanity.

This new world must be a world in which there shall be no exploitation
of the weak by the strong, of the good by the evil;
where there will be no humiliation
of the poor by the violence of the rich; where the products of intellect, science and art will serve society for the betterment and beautification of life,
and not the individuals for achieving wealth.

This new world shall not be a world of the downtrodden and humiliated,
but of free men and free nations, equal in dignity and respect.”

“The day when we shall know exactly what “electricity” is, will chronicle an event probably greater,
more important than any other recorded in the history of the human race.
The time will come when the comfort, the very existence, perhaps,
of man will depend upon that wonderful agent.”

“I do not hesitate to state here for future reference and as a test of the accuracy of my scientific forecast that flying machines and ships propelled by electricity transmitted without wire will have ceased to be a wonder in ten years from now.
I would say five were it not that there is such a thing as “inertia of human opinion” resisting revolutionary ideas.”

“I am part of a light, and it is the music.
The Light fills my six senses: I see it, hear, feel, smell, touch and think.
Thinking of it means my sixth sense.

Particles of Light are written note.
O bolt of lightning can be an entire sonata.
A thousand balls of lightening is a concert..

For this concert I have created a Ball Lightning,
which can be heard on the icy peaks of the Himalayas.”