Thomas A. Edison quotes page 1

1847-1931, American inventor

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

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

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Thomas A. Edison

If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
Thomas A. Edison

What you are will show in what you do.
Thomas A. Edison

We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

Inspiration can be found in a pile of junk. Sometimes, you can put it together with a good
imagination and invent something.
Thomas A. Edison

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

My main purpose in life is to make enough money to create ever more inventions. The
dove is my emblem. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it. I am proud of
the fact that I have never invented weapons to kill.
Thomas A. Edison

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.
Thomas A. Edison

The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to
one problem incessantly without growing weary.
Thomas A. Edison

I readily absorb ideas from every source, frequently starting where the last person left off.
Thomas A. Edison

As a cure for worrying, work is far better than whiskey. I always found that, if I began to
worry, the best thing I could do was focus upon doing something useful and then work
very hard at it. Soon, I would forget what was troubling me.
Thomas A. Edison

Most of the exercise I get is from standing and walking all day from one laboratory table to
another. I derive more benefit and entertainment from this than some of my friends and
competitors get from playing games like golf.
Thomas A. Edison

Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge.
Thomas A. Edison

Our schools are not teaching students to think. It is astonishing how many young people
have difficulty in putting their brains definitely and systematically to work.
Thomas A. Edison

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

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 A. Edison

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
Thomas A. Edison

Vision without execution is hallucination.
Thomas A. Edison

If parents pass enthusiasm along to their children, they will leave them an estate of
incalculable value.
Thomas A. Edison

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.
Thomas A. Edison

When you exhaust all possibilities, remember this: You haven't.
Thomas A. Edison

I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person
with a thousand ideas who does nothing.
Thomas A. Edison

Everybody steals in commerce and industry. I've stolen a lot myself. But I know how to steal.
Thomas A. Edison

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

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
Thomas A. Edison

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

I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.
Thomas A. Edison

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