Tesla, Smoking Rabbit and How he Stopped it

“Long before I was twenty, I was smoking excessively — fifteen or twenty big black cigars every day. My health was threatened, and my family often tried to get me to promise to stop, but I would not.

“One day I was standing in front of our house, when they told me the doctor had just said that my youngest sister, who had been very ill for some time, was dying. I went up to her room, carrying my lighted cigar, and before kneeling at her bedside I placed the cigar on a little table beside the bed.

“Niko,” she said, so faintly that I could hardly hear her, “you are killing yourself with smoking. Promise me you will give it up.”

“Yes,” I said; “if you will get well, I promise to give up smoking.”

“All right, Niko,” she said feebly. “I will try.”

“She did get well, and I have never smoked since. It was very hard to give it up, but I was determined to keep my promise. Not only did I stop, but I finally destroyed every inclination for what had been such a great satisfaction. In this way I have freed myself of other habits and passions, and so have preserved my health and my zest for life. The satisfaction derived from demonstrating my own strength of will has always meant more to me in the end than the pleasurable habits I gave up. I believe that a man can and should stop any habit he recognizes to be “foolish.”

–Nikola Tesla

“Making Your Imagination Work For You.” American Magazine, April, 1921.

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