Editing Nikola Tesla (section)

== Personal life and character ==

[[File:N.Tesla.JPG|thumb|alt=Photograph of Nikola Tesla, a slender, moustachioed man with a thin face and pointed chin.|Tesla {{circa|1896}}]]

Tesla was a lifelong bachelor, who had once explained that his chastity was very helpful to his scientific abilities.{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=33}} In an interview with the ''Galveston Daily News'' on 10 August 1924 he stated, "Now the soft-voiced gentlewoman of my reverent worship has all but vanished. In her place has come the woman who thinks that her chief success in life lies in making herself as much as possible like man—in dress, voice and actions..."{{sfn|Cheney|Uth|Glenn|1999|p=135}} Although he told a reporter in later years that he sometimes felt that by not marrying, he had made too great a sacrifice to his work,{{sfn|Seifer|2001|p=414}} Tesla chose to never pursue or engage in any known relationships, instead finding all the stimulation he needed in his work.

Tesla was asocial and prone to seclude himself with his work.{{sfn|Jonnes|2004}}{{Sfn|Cheney|Uth|Glenn|1999|loc=Preface}}<ref>{{cite book|title=AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-04702-6|pages=163–64|first=Tom|last=McNichol|quote=Tesla's peculiar nature made him a solitary man, a loner in a field that was becoming so complex that it demanded collaboration.}}</ref> However, when he did engage in social life, many people spoke very positively and admiringly of Tesla. [[Robert Underwood Johnson]] described him as attaining a "distinguished sweetness, sincerity, modesty, refinement, generosity, and force".{{sfn|Seifer|2001|p=130}} His secretary, Dorothy Skerrit, wrote: "his genial smile and nobility of bearing always denoted the gentlemanly characteristics that were so ingrained in his soul".{{sfn|O'Neill|1944|p=289}} Tesla's friend [[Julian Hawthorne]] wrote, "seldom did one meet a scientist or engineer who was also a poet, a philosopher, an appreciator of fine music, a linguist, and a connoisseur of food and drink".{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=80}}

Tesla was a good friend of [[Francis Marion Crawford]], Robert Underwood Johnson,<ref name="teslasociety1" /> [[Stanford White]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Stanford White|url=http://www.teslasociety.com/stanford.htm|publisher=Tesla Memorial Society of NY|access-date=4 July 2012|archive-date=28 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101128204919/http://teslasociety.com/stanford.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Fritz Lowenstein, George Scherff, and Kenneth Swezey.<ref>{{citation|first=Kenneth M.|last=Swezey|title=Papers 1891–1982|volume=47|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8047.htm|publisher=National Museum of American History|access-date=4 July 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505004025/http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8047.htm|archive-date=5 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Tribute to Nikola Tesla|url=http://www.teslasociety.com/posterbook.htm|publisher=Tesla Memorial Society of NY|access-date=4 July 2012|archive-date=13 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613113120/http://teslasociety.com/posterbook.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Nikola Tesla at Wardenclyffe|url=http://www.teslasociety.com/warden.htm|publisher=Tesla Memorial Society of NY|access-date=4 July 2012|archive-date=29 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129042338/http://teslasociety.com/warden.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In middle age, Tesla became a close friend of [[Mark Twain]]; they spent a lot of time together in his lab and elsewhere.<ref name="teslasociety1">{{cite web|title=Famous Friends|url=http://www.teslasociety.com/famousfriends.htm|publisher=Tesla Memorial Society of NY|access-date=4 July 2012|archive-date=28 November 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101128190309/http://teslasociety.com/famousfriends.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Twain notably described Tesla's [[induction motor]] invention as "the most valuable patent since the telephone".<ref>{{cite news|title=Nikola Tesla: The patron saint of geeks?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19503846|work=News Magazine|publisher=BBC|access-date=10 September 2012|date=10 September 2012|archive-date=10 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120910191948/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19503846|url-status=live}}</ref> At a party thrown by actress [[Sarah Bernhardt]] in 1896, Tesla met Indian Hindu monk [[Swami Vivekananda]]. Vivekananda later wrote that Tesla said he could demonstrate mathematically the relationship between matter and energy, something Vivekananda hoped would give a scientific foundation to [[Vedantic]] cosmology.<ref>Kak, S. (2017) Tesla, wireless energy transmission and Vivekananda. Current Science, vol. 113, 2207–2210.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=30PeCQAAQBAJ&q=tesla+Vivekananda&pg=PT24|title=Swami Vivekananda: A Contemporary Reader edited by Makarand R. Paranjape|isbn=978-1-317-44636-1|last1=Paranjape|first1=Makarand R.|date=12 June 2015|publisher=Routledge|access-date=4 May 2021|archive-date=23 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323124315/https://books.google.com/books?id=30PeCQAAQBAJ&q=tesla+Vivekananda&pg=PT24#v=snippet&q=tesla%20Vivekananda&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> The meeting with Swami Vivekananda stimulated Tesla's interest in Eastern Science, which led to Tesla studying Hindu and [[Vedic philosophy]] for a number of years.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nikola Tesla and Swami Vivekananda |url=https://www.teslasociety.com/tesla_and_swami.htm |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=www.teslasociety.com |archive-date=20 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220143353/https://www.teslasociety.com/tesla_and_swami.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Tesla later wrote an article titled "Man's Greatest Achievement" using Sanskrit terms [[akasha]] and [[prana]] to describe the relationship between matter and energy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Influence Vedic Philosophy Had on Nikola Tesla's Idea of Free Energy – SAND |url=https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/article/the-influence-vedic-philosophy-had-on-nikola-teslas-idea-of-free-energy |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=The Influence Vedic Philosophy Had on Nikola Tesla’s Idea of Free Energy – SAND |language=en |archive-date=20 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220143355/https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/article/the-influence-vedic-philosophy-had-on-nikola-teslas-idea-of-free-energy |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=(PDF) Tesla (1930)-Man's Greatest Achievement.pdf |url=https://dokumen.tips/documents/tesla-1930-mans-greatest-achievementpdf.html |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=dokumen.tips |language=en |archive-date=20 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220143359/https://dokumen.tips/documents/tesla-1930-mans-greatest-achievementpdf.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the late 1920s, Tesla befriended [[George Sylvester Viereck]], a poet, writer, mystic, and later a [[Nazi]] propagandist. Tesla occasionally attended dinner parties held by Viereck and his wife.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cheney |first1=Margaret|last2=Uth |first2=Robert|name-list-style=amp|date=2001|title=Tesla: Master of Lightning|publisher=Barnes & Noble Books|page=137}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Neil M.|title=George Sylvester Viereck: Poet and Propagandist|publisher=Neil M. Johnson}}</ref>

Tesla could be harsh at times and openly expressed disgust for overweight people, such as when he fired a secretary because of her weight.{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=110}} He was quick to criticize clothing; on several occasions, Tesla directed a subordinate to go home and change her dress.{{sfn|Cheney|2001|p=33}} When [[Thomas Edison]] died in 1931, Tesla contributed the only negative opinion to ''[[The New York Times]]'', buried in an extensive coverage of Edison's life:

{{blockquote|He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene&nbsp;... His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90 percent of the labor. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense.<ref name="lifeEdison">{{cite book |title=Thomas Edison: Life of an Electrifying Man |last=Biographiq |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-59986-216-3 |page=23 |publisher=Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.}}</ref><ref name="Edisonobit">{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |title=Tesla says Edison was an empiricist |date=19 October 1931 |work=New York Times |page=27 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/10/19/issue.html |access-date=15 January 2024 |ref=none |archive-date=23 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323124240/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/10/19/issue.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Tesla became a vegetarian in his later years, living on only milk, bread, honey, and vegetable juices.<ref name="seifer1" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Gitelman |first=Lisa |title=Reconciling the Visionary with the Inventor Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/1997/11/01/237150/reconciling-the-visionary-with-the-inventor/ |publisher=technology review (MIT) |access-date=3 June 2012 |date=1 November 1997 |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922054715/https://www.technologyreview.com/1997/11/01/237150/reconciling-the-visionary-with-the-inventor/ |url-status=live }}</ref>