Thomas Edison (1847–1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures.
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| I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. ― Thomas Edison |
Here is a collection of Thomas Edison most famous quotes: Thomas Edison quotes about work, failure, success, thinking, invention, science, opportunity, perseverance, tenacity and dedication. Quotes and sayings on intelligence, experimentation, failure, ethics, hard-work, inspiration and knowledge by Thomas Edison.
Thomas Edison Quotes and Sayings
There is no substitute for hard work.
We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Discontent is the first necessity of progress.
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.
Great ideas originate in the muscles.
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| Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. ― Thomas Edison |
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.
If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this - you haven't.
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!
If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.
Negative results are just what I want. They're just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don't.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
What you are will show in what you do.
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| Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ― Thomas Edison |
Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
There are no rules here ― we're trying to accomplish something.
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.
I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.
The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.
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.
I never did a day's work in my life, it was all fun.
The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary purpose of our public schools. The mind of a child is naturally active, it develops through exercise. Give a child plenty of exercise, for body and brain. The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation.
I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.
To do much clear thinking a person must arrange for regular periods of solitude when they can concentrate and indulge the imagination without distraction.
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| Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ― Thomas Edison |
Restlessness is discontent ― and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man ― and I will show you a failure.
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.
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy―sun, wind and tide. I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants.
What a man's mind can create, man's character can control.
I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.
Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability. We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.
I start where the last man left off.
Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
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| Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think. ― Thomas Edison |
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 first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.
There's a way to do it better - find it.
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.
Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.
I never did anything worth doing 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.
To have a great idea, have a lot of them.
Nearly every person 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.
I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.
When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
There is far more opportunity than there is ability.
The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.
They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.
Happiness is only for the honest-that's a law that runs through matter as undetectable as gravity.
There is no substitute for hard work.
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
A good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to a poor result.
To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity.
The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.
We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.
If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.
Opportunity is often missed because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.
It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.