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

He repeated the claim in a 1932 interview with Harper's Monthly: "You may have heard people repeat what I have said. Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration". | It is not clear exactly when Edison first made this form of the remark; it was attributed to him with this wording by 1901. In an address by the unitarian minister George N. Falconer, reported at | Precursors | A poet's inspiration is most frequently an editor's perspiration | Unattributed aphorism in an 1881 newspaper article. | No inspiration without perspiration | Attributed to Kate Sanborn in an 1891 newspaper article. | Inspiration is perspiration | Cited as an unattributed "proverb" in an 1891 article. | Genius is inspiration, talent is perspiration | Attributed to Sanborn in an 1893 newspaper article. | Genius and adaptability is one per cent. Hard work is 99 per cent | Unattributed aphorism in an 1895 newspaper article. | [Thomas Edison] says, "Inspiration is perspiration". | Attributed to Edison in an 1897 issue of The Musician magazine. | Once, when asked to give his definition of genius, Edison replied: "Two per cent. is genius, and 98 per cent. is hard work." At another time, when the argument that genius was inspiration was brought before him, he said: "Bah! Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration" | From an April 1898 article in Ladies' Home Journal containing stories about Edison "as told by his intimate friends". | Edison is credited with the extremely funny and acute saying that "genius is ninety percent perspiration" | From a May 1898 article. | Even Mr. Edison is quoted as having said that genius may be divided into two parts, of which inspiration is 2 per cent and perspiration 98. | From a speech by J. K. Orr to an Atlanta high school, as reported in a May 1898 newspaper article. | "Genius is three per cent. inspiration and ninety-seven per cent. perspiration" | Unattributed saying from an 1899 "help wanted" advertisement. | None of my inventions

|| forms without early citation: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework." "Genius: one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."