Dream Quote by Paul Laffoley
![“[Nikola Tesla] would do it through lucid dreaming. He would, in a sense, dream up the engine, forget about it, come back, and then discover where it was wearing. You know, where the parts were wearing out. Now, that's inner visualization and a half! And that was the secret of why he did so many…” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d50/paul-laffoley-7077_dream_nikola-tesla-would-do-it-through-lucid-d_582507.jpg)
“[Nikola Tesla] would do it through lucid dreaming. He would, in a sense, dream up the engine, forget about it, come back, and then discover where it was wearing. You know, where the parts were wearing out. Now, that's inner visualization and a half! And that was the secret of why he did so many inventions.”
About This Quote
Source Lecture: “Dreams and Invention” at MIT, 2015
He describes Tesla’s method of visualizing inventions in dreams, highlighting imagination as a tool for engineering breakthroughs.
In simple terms: Tesla used dreaming to design and improve inventions.
Key Takeaway
Leverage imagination for problem solving.
Themes
creativity
science
imagination
innovation
dreams
Mood
inspirational
thought‑provoking
Type
creative
scientific
When to use this quote
- design brainstorming
- R&D sessions
- personal projects
Key Concepts
visual thinking
prototype development
cognitive science
Questions to Reflect On
- How can you capture ideas from dreams?
- What role does imagination play in your work?
A Different Perspective
Dream insights can be vague and hard to translate.
![“I think [Nikola Tesla] was always like that. And so it was inevitable that he would be an inventor. Because it was so easy for him to think fourth-dimensionally, dynamically. It wasn't just a static thing with him. In other words, it isn't the way an architect thinks, which is essentially static.” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a61/paul-laffoley-7077_architect_i-think-nikola-tesla-was-always-like-tha_2814450.jpg)
![“Both [Nikola] Tesla and [Leon] Theremin were preternaturally young. I mean, for a long time Tesla was a young man well into his 70s. And so was Theremin, even though, at the end, he looked pretty old. But he was still doing things that young guys do, beyond the time you'd normally think people…” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/572/paul-laffoley-7077_doing-things_both-nikola-tesla-and-leon-theremin-were_3070914.jpg)
![“I began to analyze the movie [The Day the Earth Stood Still] and said it was really made out of these two characters [Nikola Tesla and Leon Teremin] who were brought together. That made it fascinating to me. And especially the language they made up, that Klaatu speaks. Because it has a Latin word…” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0ed/paul-laffoley-7077_character_i-began-to-analyze-the-movie-the-day-the_380205.jpg)
![“[Nikola Tesla] was thinking of parts actually moving, like exchanging positions in space through time. This would go over here, then that would go over there, and then something else would happen.” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/273/paul-laffoley-7077_exchanging_nikola-tesla-was-thinking-of-parts-actua_2197568.jpg)
![“[Nikola Tesla] said he had no interest in the spiritual. He didn't believe in telepathy, didn't believe in any of that stuff, didn't believe in any religion, and he just thought all these people were being superstitious and wanted them to go away. And in that way he was very close to H.P…” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b16/paul-laffoley-7077_atheist_nikola-tesla-said-he-had-no-interest-in_504374.jpg)
![“[Nikola Tesla and Leon Theremin] were European gentlemen, very well-mannered, all of the stuff you associate with living in Europe.” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c7e/paul-laffoley-7077_associates_nikola-tesla-and-leon-theremin-were-euro_900295.jpg)
![“I first heard of [Orfeo Angelucci] from Giuseppe Conti who gave me some books by him.” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b19/paul-laffoley-7077_book_i-first-heard-of-orfeo-angelucci-from-gi_53732.jpg)
![“The whole thing that Dante [Alighieri] did was summed up in the medieval world. It's like St. Thomas Aquinas, the Summa Theologica. He didn't invent it, he just put it all in one package. You get twelve fat books there sitting in any library. Whereas... I think if Joshi thinks [H.P.] Lovecraft was…” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a35/paul-laffoley-7077_book_the-whole-thing-that-dante-alighieri-did_82075.jpg)
![“You know, Mick Jagger's "Sympathy for the Devil." I think it was inspired by that [H.P.Lovecraft stories]. You don't know who's reading what, you know. It just comes out once in a while in the pop culture.” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b25/paul-laffoley-7077_culture_you-know-mick-jagger-s-sympathy-for-the_104239.jpg)
![“At 15 [my father] revolted against his father like any teenager, and said, "I'm out of here! What are you doing to me?" He thought he wouldn't be involved in that kind of stuff for the rest of his life. He just wanted to make money. He was one of those people who took over the family…” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a7c/paul-laffoley-7077_borrowed_at-15-my-father-revolted-against-his-fat_149241.jpg)
![“The Babson Institute, which is now an actual university, was started by this guy [my father] who also had a problem with believing in gravity. And so he started the Babson Institute in New Boston, New Hampshire, which then moved to Gloucester. Each year they have a competition of one thousand…” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/cc2/paul-laffoley-7077_believe_the-babson-institute-which-is-now-an-act_213586.jpg)
![“Stephen Hawking won [Babson Institute competition ] one year with his black hole stuff. It's keeping an open mind on whether gravity exists or not. I think my father believed this because ... when the wind blew on him, he'd get angry, because it was something he couldn't control.” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d2f/paul-laffoley-7077_angry_stephen-hawking-won-babson-institute-com_267232.jpg)
![“[My father] was always saying I'd end up like my grandfather. Okay. My grandfather was an architect, I'm an architect. It's true, certain characteristics are similar.” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/683/paul-laffoley-7077_architect_my-father-was-always-saying-i-d-end-up-l_329214.jpg)
![“From the time of Dante [Alighieri], when you have the Ptolemaic universe, you had God on the outside like a hypersphere, and then in the center you have the Earth, all the seven heavens and layers, and then you have the Mount of Purgatory and Hell right in the center, and here's Satan flapping his…” quote by Paul Laffoley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/df2/paul-laffoley-7077_earth_from-the-time-of-dante-alighieri-when-yo_360603.jpg)
