Thomas A. Edison Quotes

Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward.

I never quit until I get what I want.

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 am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.

The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness.

Whatever the mind of man creates, should be controlled by man's character.

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this - you haven't.

My main purpose in life is to make money so I can afford to go on creating more inventions.

When down in the mouth, remember Jonah. He came out all right.

Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability.... We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.

Life's most soothing things are a child's goodnight and sweet music.

Baseball is the greatest of American games. Some say football, but it is my firm belief, and it shall always be, that baseball has no superior.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man - and I will show you a failure.

The stomach is the only part of man which can be fully satisfied. The yearning of man's brain for new knowledge and experience and for more pleasant and comfortable surroundings never can be completely met. It is an appetite which cannot be appeased.

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.

Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

Success depends on how many experiments you can fit into 24 hours

There is a better way for everything. Find it.

I never failed. It just didn't work 10,000 times.

I am so deaf I am debarred from hearing all the time articulation and have to depend on the judgment of others.

None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

All bibles are man-made.

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

I consider Paine our greatest political thinker. As we have not advanced, and perhaps never shall advance, beyond the Declaration and Constitution, so Paine has had no successors who extended his principles.

An idea is something that won't work unless you do.

I try not to invent things that people don't need.

Let the public throw bouquets to the inventors and in time we will all be happy.

I have determined that there is no market for talking pictures

Youth doesn't take advice.

Through all the years of experimenting and research, I never once made a discovery. I start where the last man left off... All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention pure and simple.

I have not failed. I have successfully discovered 1200 ideas that don't work.

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

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. ~

Failure is really a matter of conceit. People don't work hard because, in their conceit, they imagine they'll succeed without ever making an effort. Most people believe that they'll wake up some day and find themselves rich. Actually, they've got it half right, because eventually they do wake up.

I can never pick up a thing without wishing to improve it.

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.

The entity that gives life and motion to the human body is finer still and lies infinitely beyond the reach of our finest scientific instruments. When this entity deserts the body, the body is like a ship without a rudder - deserted, motionless, dead.

I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt.

The United States, and other advanced nations, will someday be able to produce instruments of death so terrible the world will be in abject terror of itself and its ability to end civilization.... Such war-making weapons should be developed - but only for purposes of discovery and experimentation

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.

This problem, once solved, will be simple.

I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.

There is a better way to do it - Find it!

If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.

The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus.

The perils of overwork are slight compared with the dangers of inactivity.

It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30,000,000 in bonds and not $30,000,000 in currency. Both are promises to pay; but one promise fattens the usurer (banker), and the other helps the people. If the currency issued by the Government were no good, then the bonds issued would be no good either. It is a terrible situation when the Government, to increase the national wealth, must go into debt and submit to ruinous interest charges at the hands of men who control the fictitious values of gold.

I am much less interested in what is called God's word than in God's deeds. All bibles are man-made.