“Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.”

Last update May 4, 2026. History

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Nikola Tesla125

Serbian American inventor 1856–1943

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“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

Source: "An Inventor's Seasoned Ideas", New York Times (8 April 1934)

“Government alone, in all man’s inventions, is capable of independent life. Government alone, like Mrs. Shelley’s terrifying creation of the monster born in Frankenstein’s mind, has the power and the ability to turn upon its creators and destroy them.”

Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) American libertarian businessman

Source: Nature of Man and His Government (1959), p. 78

“Trust not him with your secrets, who, when left alone in your room, turns over your papers.”

Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss poet

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“The idea of interest on loans is the diabolical invention of big loan-capital; it alone makes possible the lazy drone's life of a minority of tycoons at the expense of the productive peoples and their work-potential.”

Gottfried Feder (1883–1941) German economist and politician

"Manifesto for the Abolition of Enslavement to Interest on Money" (1919)

“I address myself to the young. They alone will have to listen to me, they alone will be able to understand me. Some people are born already old, drooling specters from the past, cryptograms tumid with poisons: to them, no words or ideas except a single injunction: the end.”

Francesco Balilla Pratella (1880–1955) Italian composer

Poggi et al (2009, p. 75)
Original text:
Io mi rivolgo ai giovani. Essi soli mi dovranno ascoltare e mi potranno comprendere. C’è chi nasce vecchio, spettro bavoso del passato, crittogama tumida di veleni: a costoro, non parole, nè idee, ma una imposizione unica: fine.
Manifesto of Futurist Musicians (1910)