Alexander Graham Bell Quotes

Man is the result of slow growth; that is why he occupies the position he does in animal life. What does a pup amount to that has gained its growth in a few days or weeks, beside a man who only attains it in as many years.

Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do you will be certain to find something you have never seen before.

The achievement of one goal should be the starting point of another.

The great advantage [the telephone] possesses over every other form of electrical apparatus consists in the fact that it requires no skill to operate the instrument.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

I have heard articulate speech produced by sunlight I have heard a ray of the sun laugh and cough and sing! … I have been able to hear a shadow, and I have even perceived by ear the passage of a cloud across the sun's disk.

Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone. Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. You will be certain to find something you have never seen before. Of course it will be a little thing, but do not ignore it. One discovery will lead to another, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind, and really big discoveries are the result of thought.

I have always considered myself as an Agnostic.

Man is an animal which, alone among the animals, refuses to be satisfied by the fulfillment of animal desires.

First words on the first telephone - "Mr. Watson - come here - I want to see you."

The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.

Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods.

I have travelled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all!

The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.

What this power is, I cannot say... All I know is that it exists.

The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion. It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider - and progressively better able to grasp any theme or situation - persevering in what he knows to be practical, and concentrating his thought upon it, who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree.

I have had the feeling that a properly constructed flying-machine should be capable of being flown as a kite; and conversely, that a properly constructed kite should be capable of use as a flying-machine when driven by its own propellers.

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.

Grand telegraphic discovery today … Transmitted vocal sounds for the first time ... With some further modification I hope we may be enabled to distinguish … the “timbre” of the sound. Should this be so, conversation viva voce by telegraph will be a fait accompli.

You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them.

What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.

America is a country of inventors, and the greatest of inventors are the newspaper men.

Watson, ... if I can get a mechanism which will make a current of electricity vary in its intensity, as the air varies in density when a sound is passing through it, I can telegraph any sound, even the sound of speech.

Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.

The day will come when the man at the telephone will be able to see the distant person to whom he is speaking.

Another discovery which came out of my investigation was the fact that when one gives his or her order to produce a definite result and stands by that order, it seems to have the effect of giving one what might be termed a second sight which enables him or her to see right through ordinary problems. What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when one is in that state of mind in which he or she knows exactly what one wants and is fully determined not to quit until he or she finds it.

One day there will be a telephone in every major city in the USA

With every door that closes a new one opens.

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.

Wherever you may find the inventor, you may give him wealth or you may take from him all that he has; and he will go on inventing. He can no more help inventing that he can help thinking or breathing.

Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone and following one after the other like a flock of sheep. Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods.

There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things.

Observe, Remember, Compare.

One day every major city in America will have a telephone.

Night is a more quiet time to work. It aids thought.

The telephone will be used to inform people that a telegram has been sent.

It is the man who carefully advances step by step...who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree.

Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.

The inventor is a man who looks around upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.

Washington is no place in which to carry out inventions

We are all too much inclined, I think, to walk through life with our eyes shut. There are things all round us and right at our very feet that we have never seen, because we have never really looked.

When one door closes, another one opens.

The nation that secures control of the air will ultimately control the world.

Ordinary people who know nothing of phonetics or elocution have difficulties in understanding slow speech composed of perfect sounds, while they have no difficulty in comprehending an imperfect gabble if only the accent and rhythm are natural.

Neither the Army nor the Navy is of any protection, or very little protection, against aerial raids.

Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.

There are two critical points in every aerial flight-its beginning and its end.

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.