A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another.

It is apparent to me that the possibilities of the aeroplane, which two or three years ago were thought to hold the solution to the [flying machine] problem, have been exhausted, and that we must turn elsewhere.

I am both pleased but astonished by the fact that mankind has not yet begun to use all the means and devices that are available for destruction. I hope that such weapons are never manufactured in quantity.

I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them.

The strength of the Constitution, lies in the will of the people to defend it.

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.

Not only will atomic power be released, but someday we will harness the rise and fall of the tides and imprison the rays of the sun.