Authors:

Thomas A. Edison Quotes - Page 10

All Quotes Accomplishment Achievement Ambition Art Atheism Atheist Business Character Children Common Sense Constitution Country Courage Creativity Earth Education Effort Energy Exercise Failing Failure Focus Funny Genius Giving Giving Up Happiness Hard Work Health Imagination Innovation Inspiration Inspirational Inspiring Knowledge Life Lying Memories Money Motivation Motivational My Way Nature Opportunity Past Peace Perseverance Persistence Personality Planning Positive Progress Purpose Quitting Religion Running Satan School Science Sleep Soul Study Success Technology Time Values Vision Wisdom Work Work Out
I try not to invent things that people don't need.

I try not to invent things that people don't need.

Thomas A. Edison
People, Trying, Needs

It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition-and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise. This thing that gives out and then that-"Bugs"as such little faults and difficulties are called show themselves and months of anxious watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success-or failure-is certainly reached.

Thomas A. Edison
Success, Science, Giving
Letter to Theodore Puskas, 18 Nov. 1878.

Seeming to do is not doing.

Thomas A. Edison
Seeming
Ford Times, Volume 6, (p. 136), 1912.

Genius? Nothing! Sticking to it is the genius! ... I've failed my way to success.

Thomas A. Edison
Genius, Way, My Way

Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward.

Thomas A. Edison
Motivational, Suicidal, Men

When down in the mouth, remember Jonah. He came out all right.

Thomas A. Edison
Mouths, Remember, Jonah

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 A. Edison
Inspirational, Failure, Way

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

Thomas A. Edison
Positive, Inspiration, Ninety Nine

My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant - but misdirected - ideas of others.

Thomas A. Edison
Motivational, Ideas, Giving

Because I readily absorb ideas from every source - frequently starting where the last person left off - I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.

Thomas A. Edison
Motivational, Thinking, Ideas

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.

Thomas A. Edison
Courage, Opportunity, Ability

It is very beautiful over there. (last words)

Thomas A. Edison
Beautiful, Lasts, Last Words

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

Thomas A. Edison
Motivational, Positive, Perseverance

An average American loves his family. If he has any love left over for some other person, he generally selects Mark Twain.

Thomas A. Edison
Average, Mark, Persons
"Coins for Clemens: Collaborative Fundraising for Mark Twain" by Cindy Lovell, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 5, 2015.

I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process.

Thomas A. Edison
Inspirational, Patience, Perseverance

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.

Thomas A. Edison
Trials, Invention, Anything Worth Doing
"A Photographic Talk with Edison". Interview with Theodore Dreiser, Success Magazine, February 1898.

People who will not turn a shovel full of dirt on the project (Muscle Shoals Dam) nor contribute a pound of material, will collect more money from the United States than will the People who supply all the material and do all the work. This is the terrible thing about interest.

Thomas A. Edison
People, United States, Dams

I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed 3,000 different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory. My chief difficulty was in constructing the carbon filament... Every quarter of the globe was ransacked by my agents, and all sorts of the queerest materials used, until finally the shred of bamboo, now utilized by us, was settled upon.

Thomas A. Edison
Light, Two, Connections
"Talks with Edison". Harper's Magazine, Volume 80, February 1890.

I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it. I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it. I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. The dove is my emblem.

Thomas A. Edison
Technology, Thinking, Giving

I did not fail two thousand times. I merely found two thousand ways not to make a lightbulb.

Thomas A. Edison
Two, Way, Failing

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
Inspirational, Motivational, Ninety Nine

I would construct and work along various lines until I found them untenable. When one theory was discarded, I developed another at once. I realized very early that this was the only possible way for me to work out all the problems.

Thomas A. Edison
Adventure, Work Out, Lines

The inventor tries to meet the demand of a crazy civilization.

Thomas A. Edison
Crazy, Civilization, Trying

The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.

Thomas A. Edison
Success, Real, Numbers

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

Thomas A. Edison
Inspirational, Life, Motivational

You May Also Like: