Great Quote By A Great Mind - Tesla

When people think of quotes they many times they think of a short, powerful and profound statement, well this particular quote is long but leaves one in deep thought.

The man that had been quoted is considered one of the greatest minds of all times, holds hundreds of patents and was imo short changed because he was not a business man, but rather in tune with a higher dimension.

I have read and re-read this one. Enjoy!

“When we speak of man, we have a conception of humanity as a whole, and before applying scientific methods to the investigation of his movement we must accept this as a physical fact. But can anyone doubt to-day that all the millions of individuals and all the innumerable types and characters constitute an entity, a unit? Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable.

These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them. I cut myself in the finger, and it pains me: this finger is a part of me. I see a friend hurt, and it hurts me, too: my friend and I are one. And now I see stricken down an enemy, a lump of matter which, of all the lumps of matter in the universe, I care least for, and it still grieves me. Does this not prove that each of us is only part of a whole?

For ages this idea has been proclaimed in the consummately wise teachings of religion, probably not alone as a means of insuring peace and harmony among men, but as a deeply founded truth. The Buddhist expresses it in one way, the Christian in another, but both say the same: We are all one. Metaphysical proofs are, however, not the only ones which we are able to bring forth in support of this idea.

Science, too, recognizes this connectedness of separate individuals, though not quite in the same sense as it admits that the suns, planets, and moons of a constellation are one body, and there can be no doubt that it will be experimentally confirmed in times to come, when our means and methods for investigating psychical and other states and phenomena shall have been brought to great perfection. Still more: this one human being lives on and on. The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away, but man remains.

Therein lies the profound difference between the individual and the whole.”

― Nikola Tesla

If you would like to know more about Tesla try this link.

www.teslametamorphosis.com...

Another quote:

The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct, Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.

www.pbs.org...
Our hero was a eugenicist, in favor of selecting who should should be allowed to have children and who should not, who should marry and who should not. For him "humanity as a whole" was a limited set of humans.

a reply to: Phage

Goes to show you that not everyone is perfect.

Ironic isn't it.


Interesting how his quotes and POV's seem to contradict each other.

Perhaps he was Bipolar?

a reply to: Realtruth
I see what you did there.

Define perfect.

Without making a single sketch, Tesla could build precise working models of his electrifying inventions.

---

in his later years, Tesla claimed to have contacted the superior intelligences of beings from the planet Venus.

the mad scientist hall of fame.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Realtruth
I see what you did there.

Define perfect.

Telsa would have loved Monsanto for sure.

Great minds are many times on the verge of madness.

Oh and madness is subjective too. lol

Tesla gets a lot of love but Michael Faraday should get just as much if not more if you ask me.

Why no love for Faraday??

originally posted by: AlphaHawk
Tesla gets a lot of love but Michael Faraday should get just as much if not more if you ask me.

Why no love for Faraday??

No disagreement here Faraday deserves love.

My point with the Tesla quote is more so directed to at his interest in metaphysics. A man that seemly crossed those thresholds and then tried to quantify it through the physical ream.

a reply to: Realtruth

"I see a friend hurt, and it hurts me,",,,, hmm empathic it seems,

"my friend and I are one",,,,interesting concept of singularity,

"And now I see stricken down an enemy,
a lump of matter which,
of all the lumps of matter in the universe,
I care least for, and it still grieves me. "

Why would one care for a lump of incarnate matter?

What is this lump which is called the enemy?


Enlightning! pos+ electrical
given our current statis.

ohhmmm lol

originally posted by: Phage
Another quote:

The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct, Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.

www.pbs.org...
Our hero was a eugenicist, in favor of selecting who should should be allowed to have children and who should not, who should marry and who should not. For him "humanity as a whole" was a limited set of humans.

I guess we had better throw Ghandi under the bus as well for being one thing wrong as well, racist.

Cheers - Dave

This quote by Tesla is one of my favorites for obvious reasons.

It's too bad this topic was hijacked by Phage.

a reply to: WeAre0ne
It is a nice quote...if somewhat trite.

How does pointing out another quote from that same great mind hijack a topic? A quote that refines that great mind's definition of "humanity."

Well, I see a lot of people having babies who probably shouldn't. The smart people wait until they are prepared to proper raise a child so they end up having less children or no children while the idiots pump out kids left and right putting an undue strain on society by going on welfare and spreading their foolish genes far and wide, totally polluting humanity's gene pool.

There is only one thing wrong with that 2nd quote to me and that is "who will decide?" We can't trust anyone to place the threshold at the right place. Such a policy would surely lead to unfair ppersecutions, bribery and other corruptions. So I agree we have to leave things the way they are as far as the choice to procreate but I can certainly understand his sentiments. But I think a better solution would be to uplift humanity rather than the old policy of keeping the population dumbed down in order to control them easier. If more people were made aware of certain realities, they would make better choices.

I wasn't brought up in the same time period or political environment as Tesla so it's not for me to judge. There was a US president named Andrew Jackson who I admire greatly for his battle against the den of vipers we know as bankers, but at the same time his cruelty towards native Americans is pretty much unforgivable. But disdain for the natives was common back then as was slavery. And we can't just ignore the efforts and accomplishments of the past just because humanity was at an earlier point of progression than we are now. Today it is very common to go have a nice big hearty meal while not even thinking about living conditions in 3rd world countries, let alone actually doing anything about it. 100 years from now we may be judged quite harshly for these attitudes much like we judge slave owners of the past.

Anyway, I realize that eugenics may not have been as widespread during his time as slavery was 100 years prior, but I believe Tesla had good intentions in his belief in eugenics. He just did not have the benefits of our modern world such as the connectivity provided by the Internet which may have altered his way of thinking on such matters. Maybe that's a good thing. With internet, Tesla might have ended up spending his life in his parents basement hooked on porn. As it was, he accomplished a great many things, but apparently had some questionable beliefs. I know, it's utterly shocking that he was not a flawless specimen. But that's the way things (and people places and ideas- nouns!) are. That's just how nouns are. *shrugs*

I guess there are no true "heros". With sufficient knowledge on any one person it is a simple task to portray them as horrible, wonderful, or anything in between. You can just point out any single quote or action that matches with your desired portrayal. I think it's a little better, and truer, to look at the whole picture.

a reply to: 3n19m470

Interesting thoughts on Tesla thank you for the input.

Tesla proved to be capable of seeing everything and everyone as a whole, no disconnection, so imo he had lots of compassion.

And I too feel his views on eugenics were in a good light, and most likely have been misconstrued.

Anyone that dies a poor man, with over 300 patents and the most technological break through's of mankind couldn't have been all that bad.

It seemed to me Tesla was more interested in making things better for mankind, or else he would have died a multi-billionare, and the first one of his time.

a reply to: Phage

Seriously? This again? Just let it go already man...
If I didn't know any better, I'd thought you were jealous.

Oh, wait. Never mind.

a reply to: Phage

We should be discussing the quote in the OP, and its meaning.

But instead you turned it into a Tesla bashing topic.

a reply to: WeAre0ne
I didn't bash Tesla.

I just pointed out that his idea of "humanity" didn't really include all of humanity. His nice, yet somewhat trite, sentiment only applied to those he considered "worthy." It was not an uncommon viewpoint in his era, though hardly universal. Interestingly, his rival Thomas Edison was a staunch anti-eugenicist.

For ages this idea has been proclaimed in the consummately wise teachings of religion, probably not alone as a means of insuring peace and harmony among men, but as a deeply founded truth.

It's hard to accept it as a fact that Nikola Tesla could have such bad grammar.

Modern day people don't even know what grammar is, from the looks of it, at least in practice - but back then, people really knew how to write english correctly. Just read the civil war letters written by young men - they are written in such an eloquent, expressive and grammatically correct way, that modern war letters have got to look like toilet paper by comparison. It's really hard to imagine young men of today writing that way, no matter whether they are mass-murdering their brothers, or not.

Back then, people could really master the english language - and it was even expected of you, especially if you wanted to be respected in scientific circles, etc.

So could Nikola Tesla have really made such an 'american typo''?

Here is a worrisome list of american typos:

americantypo.site11.com...

It's very hard for me to accept that the respectable inventor would put himself on the left side of that list..

As for the content of the quote - well, it's basically nothing that interesting. Just a regular, religious or spiritual truth about the structure of the Universe and all life. Too bad that the quote does not have any examples as to how the clumsy Terran "science" (and I use this word very generously) actually accepts that the planets are interconnected. Even with quantum physics, scientists as a whole, have not really given in to the truth about these things and realized that everything is One .. that's why the word describing everything is 'UNIverse'.. not 'multiverse'. There can not be other 'universes', because 'universe' encompasses everything in existence.

Other planets, other galaxies, other dimensions, other vibration frequencies and planes of existence, motherships, spaceships, base ships, scout drones, solar systems, civilizations (not that this is one), sure. But other 'universes'.. logically and realistically impossible.

(You can probably safely deduce that I do not believe in the ludicrous theory that every decision creates a new reality that can't be confirmed or visited in any way)

When the etheric plane, astral plane, mental, causal, etc. are taken into account, and when it's realized that matter is not really atoms and particles, but that atoms and particles exist because of LIVING OMNIPOTENT SPIRIT, then we can really start understanding the true structure of the Universe. The smallest pieces of 'matter' are really not 'matter' at all, but come close to the spiritual plane.

This kind of observation is objectively observable, self-explanatory, undeniable fact in the astral world. But to people on this planet, it seems like a subjective viewpoint and theory, because physical things -seem- so real to us - we bump our head into a brick wall and hurt it, if we try to defy the idea of a solid wall, and so on. But also money can buy stuff, although it really has no actual value, only imaginary value - without people -thinking- that it has value, it would immediately stop having any value (and thus buying power)!

Nikola Tesla was undoubtedly the greatest inventor and electro-technical mind of 'our time' (whatever that means), just like Bruce Lee was the most skilled martial artist, and Cesar Millan is (probably) the most skilled dog behaviourist, and Beardyman the best beatboxer.

He wasn't good with finances though, and did seem a little crazy in his older years.. too bad that history books don't really mention him much. But they all remember to not only mention, but worship, pedestalize and bow to the evil businessman, Edison. He was no real inventor the way Tesla was, and I am not even sure whether he actually invented the lightbulb before Tesla did, or anything else, either. And in any case, Teslas inventions were better, and he immediately improved upon anything Edison ever supposedly invented (except the business side). After finding out about Tesla, I have no respect or admiration towards Edison or the official story of his light bulbs and inventor-status (the official story is almost guaranteed to be always 100% wrong).

But I still would have thought he had a good command of the english language, despite having been born far away from America.

a reply to: Phage

I lost some respect for Tesla when I found out he really didn't invent AC electrical generators or the induction motor or even the radio. (It is true. I can provide links if necessary.)

When you take those achievements away from him -- he was kind of wack -- by almost anyone's standards.

This guy was pretty clever, for sure. But history makes heros and monsters aout of people without 100% regard to reality. (For example, I am still trying to figure out if Armstrong Custer was a good or bad guy. It is hard to tell. There exists a diversity of facts and opinions about Custer.)

Finally, are we really sure he made the above quote of the OP ??? Or is the like the quote by Einstein about bees:

www.snopes.com...

A good thread.

globalclimatechange.wordpress.com...

Edit to add: I don't mean to knock the concept of heros here. I guess we need them whether they are real or not. It is the basic idea that counts -- not necessarily the reality of the world.

originally posted by: Phage
Another quote:

The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct, Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.

www.pbs.org...
Our hero was a eugenicist, in favor of selecting who should should be allowed to have children and who should not, who should marry and who should not. For him "humanity as a whole" was a limited set of humans.

The man foresaw Agenda 21
UN Population Division Policy Brief No. 2009/1
www.un.org...