Top 351 Quotes & Sayings by Thomas A. Edison - Page 4

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

There is time for everything.

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

Genius? Nothing! Sticking to it is the genius! ... I've failed my way to success.

People who will not turn a shovel full of dirt on the project (Muscle Shoals Dam) nor contribute a pound of material, will collect more money from the United States than will the People who supply all the material and do all the work. This is the terrible thing about interest.

We haven't failed. We now know a thousand things that won't work, so we are much closer to finding what will.

Personally, I enjoy working about 18 hours a day. Besides the short catnaps I take each day, I average about four to five hours of sleep per night.

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

Sticking to it is the genius.

Ideas without execution are hallucinations.

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

I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process.

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

Seeming to do is not doing.

Focus on how the end-user customers perceive the impact of your innovation - rather than on how you, the innovators, perceive it.

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 inventor tries to meet the demand of a crazy civilization.

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.

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.

First be sure a thing is wanted or needed, then go ahead.

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.

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.

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

There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start a new.

A lawsuit is the suicide of time.

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.

Two per cent. is genius, and ninety-eight per cent. is hard work.

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.

Nature made us - nature did it all - not the gods of the religions.

There is much more opportunity than there are people to see it.

If I had not had so much ambition and not tried to do so many things, I probably would have been happier, but less useful.

Genius? Nothing! Sticking to it is the genius! Any other bright-minded fellow can accomplish just as much if he will stick like hell and remember nothing that's any good works by itself. You've got to make the damn thing work!...I failed my way to success.

I have had a lot of success with failure

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.

I think work is the world's greatest fun.

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 thing I lose patience with the most is the clock. Its hands move too fast

Oh these mathematicians make me tired! When you ask them to work out a sum they take a piece of paper, cover it with rows of A's, B's, and X's and Y's ... scatter a mess of flyspecks over them, and then give you an answer that's all wrong!

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

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.

I start where the last man left off. What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of a man can achieve.

The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies to the problem at hand - without growing weary. Because such thinking is often difficult, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it.

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.

Large portions of life's disappointments are individuals who did not understand that they were so near achievement when they surrendered.

Every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward

During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple. I would construct a theory and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. Then it would be discarded at once and another theory evolved. This was the only possible way for me to work out the problem.

Because I readily absorb ideas from every source - frequently starting where the last person left off - I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.

They were not failures, they were new found ways of what does not work "I can accept failure,everyonefails at something. But I can't accept not trying

A reporter called on Edison to interview him about a substitute for lead in the manufacture of storage batteries that the scientist was seeking. Edison informed the man that he had made 20,000 experiments but none had worked. "Aren't you discouraged by all this waste of effort?" the reporter asked. Edison: "Waste! There's nothing wasted. I have discovered 20,000 things that won't work."

Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration.

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

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

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

The only thing I use my body for is to carry my brain around.

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.

Nature is truly wonderful. Only man is truly foul.

I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it. I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it. I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. The dove is my emblem.

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.

Barring serious accidents, if you are not preoccupied with worry and you work hard, you can look forward to a reasonably lengthy existence.... Its not the hard work that kills, its the worrying that kills.