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Quotes by Thomas A. 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.
– Thomas A. Edison

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.
– Thomas A. Edison

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
– Thomas A. Edison
Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.
– Thomas A. Edison
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!
– Thomas A. Edison
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.
– Thomas A. Edison
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
– Thomas A. Edison
Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
– Thomas A. Edison
Great ideas originate in the muscles.
– Thomas A. Edison
Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
– Thomas A. Edison
His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.
– Thomas A. Edison
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded isanother step forward.
– Thomas A. Edison
I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
– 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
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.
– Thomas A. Edison
I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.
– Thomas A. Edison
I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
– Thomas A. Edison
I start where the last man left off.
– Thomas A. Edison
If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.
– Thomas A. Edison
It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.
– Thomas A. Edison
Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
– Thomas A. Edison
Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.
– Thomas A. Edison
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.
– Thomas A. 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.
– Thomas A. Edison
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.
– Thomas A. Edison
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
– Thomas A. Edison
Religion is all bunk.
– Thomas A. Edison
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.
– Thomas A. Edison
The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.
– Thomas A. Edison
The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants.
– Thomas A. Edison
The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.
– Thomas A. Edison
The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.
– Thomas A. Edison
The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.
– Thomas A. Edison
The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
– Thomas A. Edison
There is far more opportunity than there is ability.
– Thomas A. Edison
There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.
– Thomas A. Edison
There is no substitute for hard work.
– Thomas A. Edison
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.
– Thomas A. Edison
There's a way to do it better - find it.
– Thomas A. Edison
They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.
– Thomas A. Edison
To have a great idea, have a lot of them.
– Thomas A. Edison
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
– Thomas A. Edison
To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity.
– Thomas A. 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.
– Thomas A. Edison
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
– Thomas A. Edison
What a man's mind can create, man's character can control.
– Thomas A. Edison
What you are will show in what you do.
– Thomas A. Edison
When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.
– Thomas A. Edison
Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
– Thomas A. Edison
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.
– Thomas A. Edison