Thomas A. Edison Quotations

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

There's a way to do it better - find it.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.

What you are will show in what you do.

The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!

Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

To have a great idea, have a lot of them.

I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.

The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.

Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.

His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.

I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.

Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.

Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity.

The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants.

I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us- everything that exists - proves that there are infinite laws behind it. There can be no denying this fact. It is mathematical in its precision.

What a man's mind can create, man's character can control.

I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.

I start where the last man left off.

When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.

There ain't no rules around here, we're trying to accomplish something.

Most people don't recognize opportunity when it comes, because it's usually dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work.

Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. that's not the place to become discouraged.

If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.

If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves.

If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves

What man's mind can create, man's character can control.

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.

Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.

We now know a thousand ways not to build a light bulb

We don't know one-millionth of one percent about anything.

I shall make electricity so cheap that only the rich can afford to burn candles

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent

A little twist to the usual, "Everything comes to he who waits". Everythingcomes to him who hustles while he waits.

There's a way to do better... find it.

The best thinking has been done in solitude.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

I never did anything worth doing by accident; nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work

I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

The stomach is the only part of man which can be fully satisfied. The yearning of man's brain for new knowledge and experience and for more pleasant and comfortable surroundings never can be completely met. It is an appetite which cannot be appeased.

There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start a new.

That is to say, under the old way any time we wish to add to the national wealth we are compelled to add to the national debt. Now, that is what Henry Ford wants to prevent. He thinks it is stupid, and so do I, that for the loan of $30,000,000 of their own money the people of the United States should be compelled to pay $66,000,000 - that is what it amounts to, with interest.

I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experience proved that there were great drawbacks found generally before they could be got commercial; but here was something there was no doubt of.

Direct thought is not an attribute of feminity. In this, women are now centuries behind man.

I never once made a discovery ... I speak without exaggeration that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with the electric light ... Yet in only two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory.

If I had not had so much ambition and not tried to do so many things, I probably would have been happier, but less useful.

I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt.

There is no limit to which a man will not go to avoid thinking.

It is the best book ever written on the subject. There is nothing like it!

I love great music and art, but I think 'cubist' songs and paintings are hideous.

Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.

Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used used them....

I am quite correctly described as 'more of a sponge than an inventor....'

Friendship is the heaven of life.

The world owes nothing to any man, but every man owes something to the world.

Radio is just a fashion contrivance that will soon die out. It is obvious that there never will be invented a proper receiver!

The endeavor to change universal power by selfish supplication I do not believe in.

I never knew I had an inventive talent until Phrenology told me so. I was a stranger to myself until then!

To Monsieur Eiffel the Engineer, the brave builder of so gigantic and original a specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu.

I told [Kruesi] I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talk back. He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil was put on; I then shouted "Mary had a little lamb," etc. I adjusted the reproducer, and the machine reproduced it perfectly. On first words spoken on a phonograph.

My mother was the making of me.

An average American loves his family. If he has any love left over for some other person, he generally selects Mark Twain.

Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best

Ideas without execution are hallucinations.

My main purpose in life is to make money so I can afford to go on creating more inventions....

I never failed. It just didn't work 10,000 times.

A good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to a poor result.

It is very different to make a practical system and to introduce it. A few experiments in the laboratory would prove the practicability of system long before it could be brought into general use. You can take a pipe and put a little coal in it, close it up, heat it and light the gas that comes out of the stem, but that is not introducing gas lighting. I'll bet that if it were discovered to-morrow in New York that gas could be made out of coal it would be at least five years before the system would be in general use.

X-rays ... I am afraid of them. I stopped experimenting with them two years ago, when I came near to losing my eyesight and Dally, my assistant practically lost the use of both of his arms.

Focus on how the end-user customers perceive the impact of your innovation - rather than on how you, the innovators, perceive it.