Thomas Edison
American inventor and businessman, 1847-1931
39 quotes.
Quotes by Thomas Edison
- A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job
- As a cure for worrying, work is better than whisky.
- Be courageous! Have faith! Go forward.
- 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.
- Each time you fail, you have eliminated another wrong option.
- Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
- Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
- Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
- Having a vision for what you want is not enough...Vision without execution is hallucination
- I didn't fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.
- I find out what the world needs. Then, I go ahead and invent it.
- 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.
- I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
- I never did a day’s work in my life, it was all fun.
- I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident.
- 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.
- I never view mistakes as failures. They are simply opportunities to find out what doesn't work.
- If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
- If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
- Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.
- Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
- My success is due more to my ability to work continuously on one thing without stopping than to any other single quality.
- Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
- Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress.
- Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.
- Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.
- Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.
- Success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration!
- Success is based on imagination plus ambition and the will to work.
- The secret of success is focus of purpose.
- The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do.
- There is a better way for everything. Find it.
- There’s a way to do it better – find it.
- There’s no substitute for hard work.
- Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.
- To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
- When a man dies, if he can pass enthusiasm along to his children, he has left them an estate of incalculable value.
- You can't realize your dreams unless you have one to begin with.