Thomas Edison Quotes

1847–1931 United States

Thomas Alva Edison (11 February 1847 – 18 October 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life worldwide into the twenty-first century.

United States
Academics
Businesspeople
Engineers

Also known as: Edison, Edison, Thomas, Edison, Thomas Alva, Thomas A. Edison, Thomas Alva Edison

Random Thomas Edison quote

57 quotes

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

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

An Enemy Called Average (1990)

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

Artifacts : An Archaeologist's Year in Silicon Valley (2001)

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

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

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

Behavior-Based Robotics (1998)

I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours — and thrived on it.

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.

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

American Greats (1999)

This scheme of combustion to get power makes me sick to think of — it is so wasteful.

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.

Some day some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing up sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire.

Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.

The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948)

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

I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt

The Freethinker (1970)

I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power!

We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.

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

Edison & Ford Quote Book (2003)

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

Edison & Ford Quote Book (2003)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Edison (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.