Alexander Graham Bell quotes

Alexander Graham Bell was a Scottish-born inventor and scientist, best known for inventing the telephone. His groundbreaking work transformed global communication and laid the foundation for modern telecommunications. He also contributed to advances in hearing devices and speech research. Here are 29 of his quotes:

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

Alexander Graham Bell

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

Alexander Graham Bell

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

Alexander Graham Bell

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

Alexander Graham Bell

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. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.

Alexander Graham Bell

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.

Alexander Graham Bell

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.

Alexander Graham Bell

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.

Alexander Graham Bell

Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will find something you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore around it, and before you know it, you will have something to think about to occupy your mind. All really big discoveries are the result of thought.

Alexander Graham Bell

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

Alexander Graham Bell

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.

Alexander Graham Bell

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

Alexander Graham Bell

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.

Alexander Graham Bell

Don't keep forever on the public road. Leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods.

Alexander Graham Bell

If a man is not bound down, he is sure to succeed.

Alexander Graham Bell

Mr. Watson - Come here - I want to see you.

Alexander Graham Bell

Perseverance must have some practical end, or it does not avail the man possessing it. A person without a practical end in view becomes a crank or an idiot. Such persons fill our asylums.

Alexander Graham Bell

I am a believer in unconscious cerebration. The brain is working all the time, though we do not know it. At night it follows up what we think in the daytime. When I have worked a long time on one thing, I make it a point to bring all the facts regarding it together before I retire; I have often been surprised at the results... We are thinking all the time; it is impossible not to think.

Alexander Graham Bell

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.

Alexander Graham Bell

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.

Alexander Graham Bell

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

Alexander Graham Bell

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

Alexander Graham Bell