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Inspirational Quotations

by RightAttitudes.com

Inspirational Quotes by Thomas Edison (American Inventor)

Inspirational Quotations by Thomas Edison (American Inventor)

Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931) was America’s greatest inventor. His innovations contributed to the formation of many new industries.

Born in Milan, Ohio, Edison was homeschooled by his mother after he had been expelled from school as “retarded,” possibly because of his deafness. By age 15, he was employed as a telegraph operator, where he developed an interest in electricity and its applications.

Edison’s chief inventions include the telegraph, phonograph, mimeograph, carbon microphone for telephones, carbon filament lamp, nickel-iron accumulator, and improvements to the electricity distribution system.

Edison’s famous laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, transformed invention into a broader process of innovation and laid the foundation of modern industrial research.

By the time of his death, Edison patented more than 1,093 inventions. Most of his companies merged into Edison General Electric in 1889 and later formed the General Electric Company in 1892.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Thomas Edison

Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Failure

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Friendship

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
—Thomas Edison

Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Inspiration, Creativity

Show me a completely contented person and I’ll show you a failure.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Fail, Failure

Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Maturity

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.
—Thomas Edison

Great ideas originate in the muscles.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Ideas

Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Invention

Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration.
—Thomas Edison

Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
—Thomas Edison

The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Mankind, Man, Body

You can’t realize your dreams unless you have one to begin with.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Dreams

We don’t know one-millionth of one percent about anything.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Knowledge

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
Topics: Success & Failure, Pleasure, Success

I start where the last man left off.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Excellence

Results? Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Results

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Age, Failure, Cause, Courage, Determination, War

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.
—Thomas Edison

There is no substitute for hard work.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Work, Hard Work

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Luck, Hard Work, Work, Opportunity, Opportunities

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
Topics: Action, Accomplishment

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Worth

Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Progress, Satisfaction, Discontent, Failure, Difficulties, Miscellaneous, Adversity

My message to you is: Be courageous! I have lived a long time. I have seen history repeat itself again and again. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has come out stronger and more prosperous. Be as brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Bravery, Courage to Begin, Courage

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Wisdom, Resilience, Patience

We don’t know a millionth of 1 percent about anything.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Wisdom

The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.
—Thomas Edison

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Opportunity

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Peace, Ethics

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