Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes 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

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

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

What you are will show in what you do.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Action, Humankind

I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. I take half-matured schemes for mechanical development and make them practical. I am a sort of a middleman between the long-haired and impractical inventor and the hard-headed business man who measures all things in terms of dollars and cents. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others.
—Thomas Edison

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

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

Vision without execution is hallucination.
—Thomas Edison

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

Religion is all bunk.
—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
Topics: Excess, Waste

It is very beautiful over there.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Life

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.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Success

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

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

His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Genius

To have a great idea, have a lot of them.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Ideas

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

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Ideas

The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Focus, Win, Success, Action

They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Failure, Failures, Mistakes

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 proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Invention, Weapon

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Nature, Common Sense, Achievements, Life

There’s a way to do better… find it.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Excellence, Miscellaneous

If there is a way to do it better… find it.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Goals

I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Think, Perfect, Give, Service, Vice

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
—Thomas Edison
Topics: Persistence, Virtues, Perseverance

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, Success & Failure, Pleasure

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: Courage to Begin, Courage, Bravery

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