Quotes by Alexander Bell

• Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.
• When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
• What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.
• The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.
• Neither the Army nor the Navy is of any protection, or very little protection, against aerial raids.
• Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
• Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
• America is a country of inventors, and the greatest of inventors are the newspaper men.
• A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.
• 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.
• The nation that secures control of the air will ultimately control the world.