50 Quotes by Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist, and engineer who is best known for inventing the telephone in 1876. He was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and moved to the United States in 1871. Bell's work on the telephone was just one of many contributions he made to science and technology. He also worked on projects related to aviation, hydrofoils, and the development of a device to detect metal in human bodies. Bell was also an advocate for the deaf community, and his mother and wife were both deaf. He died on August 2, 1922, in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada. (Bio)
Alexander Graham Bell Quotes
What this power is, I cannot say... All I know is that it exists. (Meaning)
When one door closes, another one opens. (Quote Meaning)
The nation that secures control of the air will ultimately control the world. (Meaning)
Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. (Quote Meaning)
The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. (Meaning)
The day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid on to houses just like water or gas. (Quote Meaning)
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. (Meaning)
The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action. (Quote Meaning)
The achievement of one goal should be the starting point of another.
Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. (Meaning)
Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. (Quote Meaning)
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.
Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open. (Meaning)
A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with. (Quote Meaning)
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!
It is the man who carefully advances step by step...who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree.
One day every major city in America will have a telephone.
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.
God has strewn our paths with wonders and we certainly should not go through life with our eyes shut
The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion. (Meaning)
First words on the first telephone - "Mr. Watson - come here - I want to see you."
Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone. (Quote Meaning)
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.
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.
It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider – who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree. (Meaning)
Man is an animal which, alone among the animals, refuses to be satisfied by the fulfillment of animal desires. (Quote Meaning)
Neither the Army nor the Navy is of any protection, or very little protection, against aerial raids. (Meaning)
Leave the beaten track behind 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.
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.
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.
The telephone will be used to inform people that a telegram has been sent.
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.
America is a country of inventors, and the greatest of inventors are the newspaper men.
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.
Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. (Quote Meaning)
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.
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.
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.
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.
The final result of our researches has widened the class of substances sensitive to light vibrations, until we can propound the fact of such sensitiveness being a general property of all matter.
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.
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.
― Alexander Graham Bell Quotes
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Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
