Top 351 Quotes & Sayings by Thomas A. Edison - Page 3

When you become quiet, it just dawns on you

Never be discouraged, because every wrong turn attempt, when left behind you, is another step forward taking you closer to your goals.

Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith and go forward.

Consider data without prejudice.

What is a college? An institute of learning. What is a business? An institute of learning. Life, itself, is an institute of learning.

Education isn't play--and it can't be made to look like play. It is hard, hard work. But it can be made interesting work.

When we learn how to store electricity, we will cease being apes ourselves; until then we are tailless orangutans. You see, we should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy. Do we use them? Oh, no! We burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property.

Success is the product of the severest kind of mental and physical application.

No, I haven't failed thousands of times. On the contrary, I have successfully eliminated thousands of ideas that do not work!

A failure teaches you that something can't be done-that way.

Accomplishing something provides the only real satisfaction in life.

Youth doesn't take advice.

There is far more danger in public than in private monopoly, for when Government goes into business it can always shift its losses to the taxpayers. Government never makes ends meetand that is the first requisite of business.

Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.

To get a great idea, come up with lots of them.

Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.

Being busy does not always mean real work.

To those searching for truth -- not the truth of dogma and darkness but the truth brought by reason, search, examination, and inquiry, discipline is required. For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction -- faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.

Friendship is the heaven of life.

As a cure for worrying, work is far better than whiskey. I always found that, if I began to worry, the best thing I could do was focus upon doing something useful and then work very hard at it. Soon, I would forget what was troubling me.

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.

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

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

The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed, if on will only take the pains to train the mind to think.

All bibles are man-made.

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.

I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God.

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.

We shall have no better conditions in the future if we are satisfied with all those which we have at present.

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.

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.

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

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

The injurious agent in cigarettes comes principally from the burning paper wrapper. The substance thereby formed is called "acrolein." It has a violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys. Unlike most narcotics, this degeneration is permanent and uncontrollable. I employ no person who smokes cigarettes.

The world owes nothing to any man, but every man owes something to the world.

The great trouble is that the preachers get the children from six to seven years of age and then it is almost impossible to do anything with them.

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

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.

I am 67, but I'm not too old to make a fresh start.

I remember that I was never able to get along at school. I was at the foot of the class.

Sleep is like a drug. Take too much at a time and it makes you dopey. You lose time and opportunities.

When there's no experimenting there's no progress. Stop experimenting and you go backward. If anything goes wrong, experiment until you get to the very bottom of the trouble.

My success is due more to my ability to work continuously on one thing without stopping than to any other single quality.

Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.

The very first thing an executive must have is a fine memory. Of course it does not follow that a man with a fine memory is necessarily a fine executive. But if he has the memory he has the first qualification, and if he has not the memory nothing else matters.

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

I've realized that most of my best ideas have followed a good night's sleep.

Even though I am nearly deaf, I seem to be gifted with a kind of inner hearing which enables me to detect sounds and noises which the ordinary person does not hear.

I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it

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. ~

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

There is no limit to which a man will not go to avoid thinking.

I've never made a mistake. I've only learned from experience.

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

This problem, once solved, will be simple.

The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.

The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness... Unfortunately, many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing.

Failure is the most effective technique to optimize strategic planning, implementation and processes.

When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.

Genius defined: of inspiration 1% percent, of perspiration, 99%.