Thomas Edison
Inventor and businessman behind the phonograph and practical electric lighting.
Quotes
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
SourceAs quoted in Edison & Ford Quote Book (2003) edited by Edison & Ford Winter Estates · via Wikiquote
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
SourceAs quoted in An Enemy Called Average (1990) by John L. Mason, p. 55 · via Wikiquote
Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
SourceAs quoted in Artifacts: An Archaeologist's Year in Silicon Valley (2001) by Christine Finn. p. 90 · via Wikiquote
Discontent is the first necessity of progress.
SourceThe Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948), p. 110 · via Wikiquote
I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.
SourceAs quoted in Edison & Ford Quote Book (2003) edited by Edison & Ford Winter Estates · via Wikiquote
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
SourceThe Philosophy of Paine (1925) · via Wikiquote
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
SourceAs quoted in Behavior-Based Robotics (1998) by Ronald C. Arkin. p. 8 · via Wikiquote
Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
SourceThe Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948), p. 110 · via Wikiquote
Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
SourceThe Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948), p. 110 · via Wikiquote
Religion is all bunk.
SourceAs quoted in What on Earth is an Atheist! (1972) by Madalyn Murray O'Hair, p. 251 · via Wikiquote
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
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.
There is no substitute for hard work.
The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.
The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.
There's a way to do it better - find it.
The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet, and the cause and prevention of disease.
Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
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.
The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.
What you are will show in what you do.
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.
Great ideas originate in the muscles.
To have a great idea, have a lot of them.
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.
The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.
Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.
I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
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!
There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.
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.
I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.
Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.
Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
What a man's mind can create, man's character can control.
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.
There is far more opportunity than there is ability.
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.
The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants.
I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.
It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.
I start where the last man left off.
To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity.
They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.
When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.
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.
Quotes without a listed source are commonly attributed to Thomas Edison. We add sources as we confirm them. How we source quotes
Disputed
Sources disagree about whether these words are genuine.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Why it is disputedAs quoted in: [J. L.] Elkhorne. Edison — The Fabulous Drone, in 73 Vol. XLVI, No. 3 (March 1967), p. 52 · via Wikiquote
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.
Why it is disputedAs quoted in The A-V Magazine Vol. 89, No. 1 (January 1981), p. 18, and The Extended Circle : A Dictionary of Humane Thought (1985) by Jon Wynne-Tyson, p. 75; this has been cited to "Harper's Magazine (1890)" but no occurrence prior to the 1981 appearance has been located. · via Wikiquote