Thomas A. Edison Quotes

The only time I really become discouraged is when I think of all the things I would like to do and the little time I have in which to do them.

My mother was the making of me. She was so true and so sure of me, I felt that I had someone to live for - someone I must not disappoint. The memory of my mother will always be a blessing to me.

I think work is the world's greatest fun.

I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can't afford to lose.

The dove is my emblem.

Nothing that's good works by itself, you've got to make the damn thing work.

Show me a completely contented person and I'll show you a failure.

I know of over 3,000 ways [that] a light bulb does not work.

I know this world is ruled by Infinite Intelligence. It required Infinite Intelligence to create it and it requires Infinite Intelligence to keep it on its course ... It is mathematical in its precision.

There is no subsitute for hard work.

I did not fail two thousand times. I merely found two thousand ways not to make a lightbulb.

X-rays ... I am afraid of them. I stopped experimenting with them two years ago, when I came near to losing my eyesight and Dally, my assistant practically lost the use of both of his arms.

Religion is all bunk.

His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.

Being busy does not always mean real work.

To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity.

I am afraid of radium and polonium ... I don't want to monkey with them.

I do not believe any type of religion should ever be introduced into the public schools of the United States.

The greatest discoveries will be along spiritual lines. This is the field where miracles are going to happen. Spiritual power is the greatest underdeveloped power and has the greatest future.

The radio craze will die out in time.

It is remarkable to what lengths people will go to avoid thought.

I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours - and thrived on it.

First, study the present construction. Second, ask for all past experiences ...study and read everything you can on the subject.

After we had conducted thousands of experiments on a certain project without solving the problem, one of my associates, after we had conducted the crowning experiment and it had proved a failure, expressed discouragement and disgust over our having failed to find out anything. I cheerily assured him that we had learned something. For we had learned for a certainty that the thing couldnt be done that way, and that we would have to try some other way.

Keep on the lookout for novel ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you're working on.

The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.

I never did a day's work in my life, it was all fun.

I would construct and work along various lines until I found them untenable. When one theory was discarded, I developed another at once. I realized very early that this was the only possible way for me to work out all the problems.

The secret of success is focus of purpose.

For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction - faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.

Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best

I am a vegetarian as well as a passionate anti-alcoholic, because I can thus make better use of my brain.

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.

The beauty of a great idea lies in the art of using it.

I will not say I failed 1000 times, I will say that I discovered there are 1000 ways that can cause failure

Somewhere between the ages of eleven and fifteen, the average child begins to suffer from an atrophy, the paralysis of curiosity and the suspension of the power to observe. The trouble, I should judge, to lie with the schools.

Accomplishing something provides the only real satisfaction in life.

I love great music and art, but I think 'cubist' songs and paintings are hideous.

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.

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.

Mr. Edison worked endlessly on a problem, using the method of elimination. If a person asked him if he were discouraged because so many attempts proved unavailing, he would say, "No, I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.".

I have a peculiar theory about radium, and I believe it is the correct one. I believe that there is some mysterious ray pervading the universe that is fluorescing to it. In other words, that all its energy is not self-constructed but that there is a mysterious something in the atmosphere that scientists have not found that is drawing out those infinitesimal atoms and distributing them forcefully and indestructibly.

We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.

I told [Kruesi] I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talk back. He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil was put on; I then shouted "Mary had a little lamb," etc. I adjusted the reproducer, and the machine reproduced it perfectly. On first words spoken on a phonograph.

IF PARENTS PASS ENTHUSIASM ALONG TO THEIR CHILDREN, THEY WILL LEAVE THEM AN ESTATE OF INCALCULABLE VALUE

A teacher sent the following note home with a six-year-old boy 'He is too stupid to learn.' That boy was Thomas A. Edison.

The money one gets for selling one's soul is always spent in deadening one's conscience, so the net gain at the end of a lifetime is no greater than if the diabolic bargain had not been struck.