Is nature a giant cat? If so, who strokes its back?

A single ray of light from a distant star falling upon the eye of a tyrant in bygone times may have altered the course of his life, may have changed the destiny of nations, may have transformed the surface of the globe, so intricate, so inconceivably complex are the processes in Nature.

It will soon be possible to transmit wireless messages around the world so simply that any individual can carry and operate his own apparatus.

Of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance.

The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away, but man remains.

The human mind thinks but to complicate. As soon as one problem is solved, that solution introduces new complications, other problems that perhaps did not exist before. That was one of my great troubles when I was younger, I invented many things that were very fine, but always I was getting into complications. I have had to work very hard to overcome that.

Archimedes was my ideal. I admired the works of artists, but to my mind, they were only shadows and semblances. The inventor, I thought, gives to the world creations which are palpable, which live and work.