From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.

There is always a better way.

I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have, fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go about it, and make trial after trial, until it comes.

Friendship is the heaven of life.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.

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

It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition-and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing that gives out and then that-"Bugs"as such little faults and difficulties are called show themselves and months of anxious watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success-or failure-is certainly reached.