Modern science says: 'The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future.' From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the transient nature of existence and the inevitability of mortality as observed through the lens of scientific understanding.
Nikola Tesla's quote highlights the cyclical nature of celestial bodies and their metaphorical representation of time—where the sun symbolizes our origins, the earth signifies our current state, and the moon anticipates our future. The phrase serves as a reminder of the relentless passage of time and the fate that awaits all living things, suggesting a philosophical contemplation of life and nature governed by unyielding natural laws.
In practice
This quote can be used in a science class discussion about the laws of nature.
Even matter called inorganic, believed to be dead, responds to irritants and gives unmistakable evidence of a living principle within. Everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside.
Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world.
Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.
The history of science shows that theories are perishable. With every new truth that is revealed we get a better understanding of Nature and our conceptions and views are modified.
The Secretary of Hygiene or Physical Culture will be far more important in the cabinet of the President of the United States who holds office in the year 2035 than the Secretary of War.
I am unwilling to accord to some small−minded and jealous individuals the satisfaction of having thwarted my efforts. These men are to me nothing more than microbes of a nasty disease. My project was retarded by laws of nature. The world was not prepared for it. It was too far ahead of time, but the same laws will prevail in the end and make it a triumphal success.
At Virgin, we have always backed the power of the entrepreneur and inventor to find solutions to tricky problems. Why should climate change and the battle against carbon be any different?
Dreaming in public is an important part of our job description, as science writers, but there are bad dreams as well as good dreams. We're dreamers, you see, but we're also realists, of a sort.
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
The most important discoveries will provide answers to questions that we do not yet know how to ask and will concern objects we have not yet imagined.
Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home.
There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance.
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