Alexander Graham Bell

I have discovered that my interest in my dear pupil, Mabel, has ripened into a far deeper feeling than that of mere friendship. In fact, I know that I have learned to love her very sincerely.

— Alexander Graham Bell

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.

— Alexander Graham Bell

Educate the masses, elevate their standard of intelligence, and you will certainly have a successful nation.

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

— Alexander Graham Bell

I have discovered that my interest in my dear pupil, Mabel, has ripened into a far deeper feeling than that of mere friendship. In fact, I know that I have learned to love her very sincerely.

— 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

America is a country of inventors, and the greatest of inventors are the newspaper men.

— Alexander Graham Bell

My knowledge of electrical subjects was not acquired in a methodical manner but was picked up from such books as I could get hold of and from such experiments as I could make with my own hands.

— Alexander Graham Bell

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

— 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

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

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.

— 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

I begin my work at about nine or ten o'clock in the evening and continue until four or five in the morning. Night is a more quiet time to work. It aids thought.

— 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

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

— 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 most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion. That intellectuality is more vigorous that has attained its strength gradually. 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.

— Alexander Graham Bell

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

— 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