Nikola Tesla Biography

[MysteRy]

Fantastic story from young Nikola Tesla:

“Long before I was twenty, I was smoking excessively — fifteen or twenty big black cigars every day. My health was threatened, and my family often tried to get me to promise to stop, but I would not.

“One day I was standing in front of our house, when they told me the doctor had just said that my youngest sister, who had been very ill for some time, was dying. I went up to her room, carrying my lighted cigar, and before kneeling at her bedside I placed the cigar on a little table beside the bed.

“Niko,” she said, so faintly that I could hardly hear her, “you are killing yourself with smoking. Promise me you will give it up.”

“Yes,” I said; “if you will get well, I promise to give up smoking.”
“All right, Niko,” she said feebly. “I will try.”

“She did get well, and I have never smoked since. It was very hard to give it up, but I was determined to keep my promise. Not only did I stop, but I finally destroyed every inclination for what had been such a great satisfaction. In this way I have freed myself of other habits and passions, and so have preserved my health and my zest for life. The satisfaction derived from demonstrating my own strength of will has always meant more to me in the end than the pleasurable habits I gave up. I believe that a man can and should stop any habit he recognizes to be “foolish.”

–Nikola Tesla
“Making Your Imagination Work For You.” American Magazine, April, 1921.

[MysteRy]

“In Smiljan, where I was born, we had two rules — honesty and kindness.
A person who never deceived others and was always ready to help was considered a decent, honorable human being.

But in the larger world, things are different.
A scoundrel who obeys rules made by other scoundrels is seen as a respectable member of society.

I have no interest in their rules.
I’ve always lived by my own — the ones I learned in my parents’ home.

I never cared what was said about me by those I did not respect.
What mattered was what I thought of myself, and what was thought of me by people whose respect I valued.

No one has ever judged my actions more strictly than I have.
And if, before sleep, I could tell myself that I had lived that day with dignity,
I slept peacefully.

I have always stood above the miserable world ruled by money.” 💫

– Nikola Tesla, “Diaries: I Can Explain Many Things”