Edison Quotes

Of the 200 light bulbs that didn't work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Nearly every person 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 A. Edison

I was at the foot of my class. ~ Thomas A. Edison

My mother was the making of me. ~ Thomas A. Edison

But wherever there is man, there must be some sort of route ~ Robert Edison Fulton Jr.

I am so deaf I am debarred from hearing all the time articulation and have to depend on the judgment of others. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Interest is the invention of Satan. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Absorb ideas from every source. ~ Thomas A. Edison

A lawsuit is the suicide of time. ~ Thomas A. Edison

A genius is a talented person who does his homework. ~ Thomas A. Edison

It is a terrible situation when the Government, to insure the National Wealth, must go in debt and submit to ruinous interest charges, at the hands of men, who control the fictitious value of gold. Interest is the invention of Satan. ~ Thomas A. Edison

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 A. Edison

Before you reject an idea, find at least five good things about it. ~ Thomas A. Edison

This problem, once solved, will be simple. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Read is my life
life is an adventure
read = adventure ~ EmmolCa

Discontent is the first necessity of progress. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I never quit until I get what I want. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Imagine if Steve Jobs or Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein were all alive 10, 20, 30 years before we know them to be alive; it would have advanced the world that much sooner. ~ Marc Guggenheim

Failure is really a matter of conceit. People don't work hard because, in their conceit, they imagine they'll succeed without ever making an effort. Most people believe that they'll wake up some day and find themselves rich. Actually, they've got it half right, because eventually they do wake up. ~ Thomas A. Edison

What I'm trying to do is get this message out about self-empowerment, entrepreneurial spirit and true Americanism - the way we were when we changed the world, when Edison was alone, failing his 2,000th time on the lightbulb. ~ Glenn Beck

Whatever the mind of man creates, should be controlled by man's character. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I am afraid of radium and polonium ... I don't want to monkey with them. ~ Thomas A. Edison

The world owes nothing to any man, but every man owes something to the world. ~ Thomas A. Edison

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

And it was at that point that I realized, in fact, our whole administration realized, that we could not rely on Metropolitan Edison for the kind of information we needed to make decisions. ~ William Scranton

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

The inventor tries to meet the demand of a crazy civilization. ~ Thomas A. Edison

The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison ~ Greg Crabtree

I can never pick up a thing without wishing to improve it. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I have not failed; I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. -Thomas Edison
I like this attitude ... ~ Davee Jones

I probably did too much thinking in India. I blame it on the roads, for they were superb ... ~ Robert Edison Fulton Jr.

What he saw seemed to be the very idea of a city, barnacled and thick with itself. ~ David Edison

The stomach is the only part of man which can be fully satisfied. The yearning of man's brain for new knowledge and experience and for more pleasant and comfortable surroundings never can be completely met. It is an appetite which cannot be appeased. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I have never failed, I've only shown the way I did it before doesn't work. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Edison pressed on and designed a range of concrete furnishings - bureaus, cupboards, chairs, even a concrete piano - to go with his concrete houses. He promised that soon he would offer, for just $5, a double bed that would never wear out. The entire range was to be unveiled at a cement industry show in New York in 1912. In the event, when the show opened, the Edison stand was bare. No one from the Edison company ever offered an explanation. It was the last anyone ever heard of concrete furniture. As far as is known, Edison never discussed the matter. A ~ Bill Bryson

If Thomas Edison had gone to business school, we would all be reading by larger candles. ~ Mark McCormack

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 A. Edison

Modern electrical power distribution technology is largely the fruit of the labors of two men - Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Compared with Edison, Tesla is relatively unknown, yet he invented the alternating electric current generation and distribution system that supplanted Edison's direct current technology and that is the system currently in use today. Tesla also had a vision of delivering electricity to the world that was revolutionary and unique. If his research had come to fruition, the technological landscape would be entirely different than it is today. Power lines and the insulated towers that carry them over thousands of country and city miles would not distract our view. Tesla believed that by using the electrical potential of the Earth, it would be possible to transmit electricity through the Earth and the atmosphere without using wires. With suitable receiving devices, the electricity could be used in remote parts of the planet. Along with the transmission of electricity, Tesla proposed a system of global communication, following an inspired realization that, to electricity, the Earth was nothing more than a small, round metal ball.
[...]
With $150,000 in financial support from J. Pierpont Morgan and other backers, Tesla built a radio transmission tower at Wardenclyffe, Long Island, that promised - along with other less widely popular benefits - to provide communication to people in the far corners of the world who needed no more than a handheld rece ~ Christopher Dunn

The dove is my emblem. ~ Thomas A. Edison

No doubt you are wondering what you will find, out there.' The Commandant said it for me.
'Well, it would be useless for me to try and tell you. The desert tells a different story every time one ventures on it ... ~ Robert Edison Fulton Jr.

I consider myself an inventor first and an entrepreneur second. In real life, my hero is Thomas Edison. He was a great inventor, but also an outstanding entrepreneur who was able to sell his inventions to the masses. He didn't just develop the light bulb; he invented the entire electric grid and power distribution system. ~ Aaron Patzer

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 A. Edison

Education isn't play
and it can't be made to look like play. It is hard, hard work. But it can be made interesting work. ~ Thomas A. Edison

If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. ~ Nikola Tesla

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 A. Edison

There is much more opportunity than there are people to see it. ~ Thomas A. 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 A. Edison

I didn't fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps. ~ Thomas A. Edison

The United States, and other advanced nations, will someday be able to produce instruments of death so terrible the world will be in abject terror of itself and its ability to end civilization ... Such war-making weapons should be developed - but only for purposes of discovery and experimentation ~ Thomas A. Edison

First be sure a thing is wanted or needed, then go ahead. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Fooling around with alternating currents is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever. It's too dangerous ... it could kill a man as quick as a bolt of lightning. Direct current is safe. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I never once made a discovery ... I speak without exaggeration that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with the electric light ... Yet in only two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I start where the last man left off. ~ Thomas A. Edison

We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work ~ Thomas A. Edison

The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary purpose of our public schools. The mind of a child is naturally active, it develops through exercise. Give a child plenty of exercise, for body and brain. The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Success depends on how many experiments you can fit into 24 hours ~ Thomas A. 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 A. Edison

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work. ~ Thomas A. Edison

To Monsieur Eiffel the Engineer, the brave builder of so gigantic and original a specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I will not say that I failed a 1000 times but that I found 1000 ways to fail. ~ Thomas Alva Edison

The outer is easier, and the outer is objective. For example, one man, Thomas Alva Edison, discovers electricity and the whole of humanity uses it; there is no need for everyone to discover it again and again. Inner growth is a totally different phenomenon. A Gautama Buddha may become enlightened, but that does not mean that everybody else becomes enlightened. Each individual has to find the truth for him or herself. ~ Rajneesh

Each time you fail, you have eliminated another wrong option. ~ Thomas A. Edison

In 'Common Sense' Paine flared forth with a document so powerful that the Revolution became inevitable. Washington recognized the difference, and in his calm way said that matters never could be the same again. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Steve Jobs thus became the greatest business executive of our era, the one most certain to be remembered a century from now. History will place him in the pantheon right next to Edison and Ford. More than anyone else of this time, he made products that were completely innovative, combining the power of poetry and processors. With a ferocity that could make working with him as unsettling as it was inspiring, he also built the world's most creative company. And he was able to infuse into its DNA the design sensibilities, perfectionism, and imagination that make it likely to be, even decades from now, the company that thrives best at the intersection of artistry and technology. ~ Walter Isaacson

[In any] machine, the failure of one part to cooperate properly with the other part disorganizes the whole and renders it inoperative for the purpose intended. - THOMAS EDISON R ~ Graham Moore

I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways it will NOT work. ~ Thomas Edison

You haven't lived life to the fullest until you've found something worth dying for ~ Luke Edison

I would rather have one man with enthusiasm working with me than ten who are complacent. ~ Thomas A. Edison

When Marconi suggested the possibility of wireless transmission of sound (the radio),he was committed to a mental institution. But people like Lincoln, Edison, and Marconi were strongly motivated. So they didn't give up. They somehow knew that the only real failure is the one from which we learn nothing. They seemed to go on the assumption that there is no failure greater than the failure of not trying, and so they continued to try in the face of repeated failures. ~ John Powell

That is to say, under the old way any time we wish to add to the national wealth we are compelled to add to the national debt. Now, that is what Henry Ford wants to prevent. He thinks it is stupid, and so do I, that for the loan of $30,000,000 of their own money the people of the United States should be compelled to pay $66,000,000 - that is what it amounts to, with interest. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I haven't failed,I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me - the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love - He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us - nature did it all - not the gods of the religions.
[October 2, 1910, interview in the NY Times Magazine] ~ Thomas A. Edison

What a man's mind can create, man's character can control. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Sticking to it is the genius. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Radio is just a fashion contrivance that will soon die out. It is obvious that there never will be invented a proper receiver! ~ Thomas A. Edison

The world of the grotesque is the darkness within us. Well before Freud and Jung shined a light on the workings of the subconscious, this correlation between darkness and our subconscious, these two forms of darkness, was obvious to people. It wasn't a metaphor, even. If you trace it back further, it wasn't even a correlation. Until Edison invented the electric light, most of the world was totally covered in darkness. The physical darkness outside and the inner darkness of the soul were mixed together, with no boundary separating the two. They were directly linked. Like this." Oshima brings his two hands together tightly. "But today things are different. The darkness in the outside world has vanished, but the darkness in our hearts remains, virtually unchanged. Just like an iceberg, what we label the ego or consciousness is, for the most part, sunk in darkness. And that estrangement sometimes creates a deep contradiction or confusion within us. ~ Haruki Murakami

Continued innovation is the best way to beat the competition. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Hi Edison. If you had a blog, your posts would show up here. ~ Goodreads

Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He was a great believer in exercising his mind and the minds of his workers and felt that without a quota he probably wouldn't have achieved very much. His personal invention quota was a minor invention every ten days and a major invention every six months. To Edison, an idea quota was the difference between eating beefsteak or a plateful of Black Beauty stew. ~ Michael Michalko

Religion is all bunk. ~ Thomas A. Edison

A Poem I Like:

With a hand that is greater than mine
she gently makes my coarse life fine
and all the reasons that meant the world
evaporate like smoke unfurled.

How can one so lacking force
house the heart where dwells the source
of power which turns the darkness lite
turns deadly games to lover's rites

by Jack Edison ~ Brie Edison

Conscious of our many problems, I seek today to lay a foundation to our public policy. My fundamental purpose is to devote my term of office to raising the standard of public service in New Jersey. ~ Charles Edison

The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I am confident that this legislature will rise above partisan bickering, especially after the public promises its members made last fall, and that it will demonstrate a high capacity for civil service. ~ Charles Edison

Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight? ~ Al Boliska

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

People are not remembered by how few times they fail, but by how often they succeed. Every wrong step is another step forward ~ Thomas A. Edison

The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles
can be developed, if on will only take the pains to train
the mind to think. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration. ~ Thomas A. Edison

I told [John Kruesi] I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talk back. He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil was put on; I then shouted 'Mary had a little lamb', etc. I adjusted the reproducer, and the machine reproduced it perfectly.
[On first words spoken on a phonograph.] ~ Thomas A. Edison

All the disadvantages of good roads: high speed, and almost total lack of that inspiring factor in travel
the welcoming hand of the interested stranger. ~ Robert Edison Fulton Jr.

a tongue has no bones but it is strong enough to break the heart so be carefull about ur words ~ Irina Swart

I had seen that once before, bleeding water. A little baby I worked on as a resident in training. That poor kid had been shot as well - his father had blasted away the top of his head with a shotgun - and we couldn't begin to stop the bloodletting in that case. "Looking pretty thin down here," I hollered when the stuff coming out his wounds was no more than pink salt water. That baby's heart stopped, started, stopped and started a dozen times before it finally gave up the ghost and we pronounced him. I could have read a newspaper through the watery stuff coming out his veins by then. ~ Edison McDaniels

A reporter called on Edison to interview him about a substitute for lead in the manufacture of storage batteries that the scientist was seeking. Edison informed the man that he had made 20,000 experiments but none had worked. "Aren't you discouraged by all this waste of effort?" the reporter asked. Edison: "Waste! There's nothing wasted. I have discovered 20,000 things that won't work." ~ Thomas A. Edison

I know of over 3,000 ways [that] a light bulb does not work. ~ Thomas A. Edison

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

Now, suppose a Negro does something really magnificent, and I glory, not in the benefit to mankind, but in the fact that the doer was a Negro. Must I not also go hang my head in shame when a member of my race does something execrable? ... The white race did not go into a laboratory and invent incandescent light. That was Edison ... If you are under the impression that every white man is an Edison, just look around a bit. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

My first hero was Thomas Edison, whose adult life had consisted entirely of free time. ~ Jonathan Franzen

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 A. Edison