A Quote by Thomas A. Edison

Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.

Thomas A. Edison

Quote Topics

Genius Inspiration Inspired Perspiration

Quote Author

Thomas A. Edison
American - Inventor
February 11, 1847 - October 18, 1931

Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.

Thomas A. Edison

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

Thomas A. Edison

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. As a result, a genius is often a talented person who has simply done all of his homework.

Thomas A. Edison

That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration - it's true.

Yanni

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

Thomas A. Edison

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Thomas A. Edison

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Thomas A. Edison

Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration.

Thomas A. Edison

Of course, a psychologist would find it more direct to study the inspired poet. He would make concrete studies of inspiration in individual geniuses. But for all that, would he experience the phenomena of inspiration? His human documentation gathered from inspired poets could hardly be related, except from the exterior, in an ideal of objective observations. Comparison of inspired poets would soon make us lose sight of inspiration.

Gaston Bachelard

Persistence isn't very glamorous. If genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, then as a culture we tend to lionize the one percent. We love its flash and dazzle. But great power lies in the other ninety-nine percent.