Quotes by Alexander Graham Bell
Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by Alexander Graham Bell. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.
Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and both his mother and wife were deaf; profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.
Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics.
Although Bell was not one of the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society, he had a strong influence on the magazine while serving as the second president from January 7, 1898, until 1903.
Beyond his scientific work, Bell had a deep interest in the emerging science of heredity.

Share... | See all 16 versions
A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with, a man is what he makes himself.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The inventor...looks 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.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Man is an animal which, alone among the animals, refuses to be satisfied by the fulfillment of animal desires.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Mr. Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you.
First intelligible words spoken over the telephone.

Share... | See all 8 versions
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.

Share... | See all 3 versions
It is a neck-and-neck race between Mr. Gray and myself who shall complete our apparatus first. He has the advantage over me in being a practical electrician -- but I have reason to believe that I am better acquainted with the phenomena of sound than he is -- so that I have an advantage there.

Share... | See all 16 versions
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.

Share... | See all 4 versions
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.

Share... | See all 16 versions
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.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Morse conquered his electrical difficulties although he was only a painter, and I don't intend to give in either till all is completed.

Share... | See all 16 versions
A man's own judgment should be the final appeal in all that relates to himself.

Share... | See all 4 versions
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.

Share... | See all 4 versions
Such a chimerical idea as telegraphing vocal sounds would indeed, to most minds, seem scarcely feasible enough to spend time in working over. I believe, however, that it is feasible and that I have got the cue to the solution of the problem.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.
Longer Version:
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.

Share... | See all 16 versions
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.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone.
Longer Version:
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. 'Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Of course it will be a little thing, but do not ignore it. Follow it up, explore all around it; one discovery will lead to another, and before you know it you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the results of thought.

Share... | See all 16 versions
When one door closes, another one opens.
Longer Version:
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.

Share... | See all 16 versions
What this power is, I cannot say... All I know is that it exists.
Longer Version:
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.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The nation that secures control of the air will ultimately control the world.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.
Longer Version:
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.

Share... | See all 16 versions
America is a country of inventors, and the greatest of inventors are the newspaper men.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Neither the Army nor the Navy is of any protection, or very little protection, against aerial raids.