Nikola Tesla

“ It was but natural for the vivid imagination of the Greeks to ascribe the mysterious manifestations to a hyper-physical cause, to endow the amber with life and with a soul. Whether this was actual belief or merely poetic interpretation is still a question. Even at this very day many of the most enlightened people think that the pearl is alive, that it grows more lustrous and beautiful in the warm contact of the human body. ”

“ The subtle agents dwelling in the living amber and loadstone have been transformed into cyclopean forces turning the wheels of human progress with ever increasing speed.
This, in brief, is the fairy tale of electricity from Thales to the present day. The impossible has happened, the wildest dreams have been surpassed and the astounded world is asking: What is coming next? ”

“ The superstitious belief of the ancients, if it existed at all, can therefore not be taken as a reliable proof of their ignorance, but just how much they knew about electricity can only be conjectured. ”