Quotable Quotes--Thomas Edison Edition

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

* * *

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

* * *

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.

* * *

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!

* * *

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

* * *

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

* * *


Great ideas originate in the muscles.

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

I start where the last man left off.

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

Religion is all bunk.

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *


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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.

* * *

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.

* * *

There is no substitute for hard work.

* * *

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.

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

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.

* * *

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

* * *

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

* * *

What you are will show in what you do.

* * *

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

* * *

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

Posted in: