On patent controversies regarding the invention of Radio and other things, as quoted in "A Visit to Nikola Tesla" by Dragislav L. Petković in Politika (April 1927); as quoted in Tesla, Master of Lightning (1999) by Margaret Cheney, Robert Uth, and Jim Glenn, p. 73 ISBN 0760710058 </small> ; also in Tesla: Man Out of Time (2001) by Margaret Cheney, p. 230 <small> ISBN 0743215362
“The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”
"A Scientist Rebels" Atlantic Monthly (Jan, 1947)
Context: The measures taken during the war by our military agencies, in restricting the free intercourse among scientists on related projects or even on the same project have gone so far that it is clear that if continued in time of peace, this policy will lead to the total irresponsibility of the scientist, and, ultimately, to the death of science.... The interchange of ideas, which is one of the greatest traditions of science, must of course receive certain limitations when the scientist becomes an arbiter of life and death.... I do not expect to publish any future work of mine which may do damage in the hands of irresponsible militarists...
“The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today.”
Attributed
Francis of Assisi, Rule of 1221, Rule 11 http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/wosf/wosf06.htm/ - That the Brothers ought not to speak or detract, but ought to love one another.
Disputed, Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.
As quoted in Mama Was My Teacher: Growing Up In A Small Southern Town (2004) by Dozier Cade, p. 77
Attributed
Problems of Estimating Military Power, August 1966
Problems of Estimating Military Power (August 1966)
“I have seen the Future, and it works.”
Lincoln Steffens, letter to Marie Howe, 3 Apr. 1919. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations notes: "Steffens had composed the expression before he had even arrived in Russia."
“His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.”
"Kafka and His Precursors" ["Kafka y sus precursores"], as translated in Labyrinths (1964)
Variant translation: The fact is that all writers create their precursors. Their work modifies our conception of the past, just as it is bound to modify the future.
Other Inquisitions (1952)
Context: In the critic's vocabulary, the word "precursor" is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemic or rivalry. The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.
