I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. I take half-matured schemes for mechanical development and make them practical. I am a sort of a middleman between the long-haired and impractical inventor and the hard-headed business man who measures all things in terms of dollars and cents. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others.

Success is based on imagination plus ambition and the will to work.

Of the 200 light bulbs that didn't work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt.

I never once failed at making a light bulb. I just found out 99 ways not to make one.

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.

I was at the foot of my class.

I start where the last man left off.