Thomas Edison Quotes

There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.

Thomas Edison (Quoted in The Strand Magazine, 1922)

There is no substitute for hard work.

Thomas Edison

The memory of Tom Paine will outlive all this. No man who helped to lay the foundations of our liberty - who stepped forth as the champion of so difficult a cause - can be permanently obscured by such attacks. Tom Paine should be read by his countrymen. I commend his fame to their hands.

Thomas Edison (The Philosophy of Paine, 1925)

What a man's mind can create, man's character can control. 

Thomas Edison

What you are will show in what you do. 

Thomas Edison

Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless. 

Thomas Edison

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

Thomas Edison (Harper's Monthly, 1932)

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

Thomas Edison

Hell, there are no rules here... we're trying to accomplish something.

Thomas Edison

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas Edison (Statement made in 1877)

To have a great idea, have a lot of them. 

Thomas Edison

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.

Thomas Edison (Quoted in The Newark Advocate, 1903)

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

Thomas Edison

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. I wish I had more years left.

Thomas Edison

Great ideas originate in the muscles.

Thomas Edison

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.

Thomas Edison (Harper's Magazine, 1890)

One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But speaking for myself, I can honestly say this is not so…I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.

Thomas Edison (Quoted by Orison Swett Marden in Secret of Achievement)

They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.

Thomas Edison

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

Thomas Edison (Quoted in The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison, 1968)

So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake... Religion is all bunk.

Thomas Edison

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.
Variant: I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Thomas Edison

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have. 

Thomas Edison

The value of an idea lies in the using of it. 

Thomas Edison

His Bible was the open face of nature, the broad skies, the green hills. He disbelieved the ancient myths and miracles taught by established creeds. But the attacks on those creeds - or on persons devoted to them - have served to darken his memory, casting a shadow across the closing years of his life.

Thomas Edison (The Philosophy of Paine, 1925)

When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes. 

Thomas Edison (Quoted in The Review of Reviews - Vol. 8, 1893)

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. 

Thomas Edison

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.

Thomas Edison

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

Thomas Edison

I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing.

Thomas Edison

I consider Paine our greatest political thinker. As we have not advanced, and perhaps never shall advance, beyond the Declaration and Constitution, so Paine has had no successors who extended his principles.

Thomas Edison (The Philosophy of Paine, 1925)

The torch which he handed on will not be extinguished.

Thomas Edison (The Philosophy of Paine, 1925)

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

Thomas Edison

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.

Thomas Edison

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. 

Thomas Edison

I cannot believe in the immortality of the soul... No, all this talk of an existence beyond the grave is wrong. It is born of our tenacity of life - our desire to go on living - our dread of coming to an end.

Thomas Edison

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

Thomas Edison

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas Edison

Tom Paine has almost no influence on present-day thinking in the United States because he is unknown to the average citizen. Perhaps I might say right here that this is a national loss and a deplorable lack of understanding concerning the man who first proposed and first wrote those impressive words, "the United States of America." But it is hardly strange. Paine's teachings have been debarred from schools everywhere and his views of life misrepresented until his memory is hidden in shadows, or he is looked upon as of unsound mind.

Thomas Edison (The Philosophy of Paine, 1925)

The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil. 

Thomas Edison

To those seaching 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.

Thomas Edison

Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success. 

Thomas Edison

My main purpose in life is to make enough money to create ever more inventions…. The dove is my emblem…. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it…. I am proud of the fact that I have never invented weapons to kill…

Thomas Edison

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.

Thomas Edison

Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!

Thomas Edison

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.

Thomas Edison

Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.

Thomas Edison

My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe it.

Thomas Edison

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

Thomas Edison

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

Thomas Edison

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure.

Thomas Edison

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

Thomas Edison (Quoted in Thomas Alva Edison: Sixty Years of an Inventor's Life, 1908)

The man who doesn't make up his mind to cultivate the habit of thinking misses the greatest pleasure in life.

Thomas Edison (Quoted in The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison, 1968)

I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. 

Thomas Edison

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

Thomas Edison

There's a way to do it better - find it.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison Biography

Born: February 11, 1847
Died: October 18, 1931

Thomas A. Edison was an American inventor and scientist. He is known for his many achievements and inventions which highly influenced the whole world. Most notably the invention of the light bulb.