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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 Edison

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More quotes by Thomas Edison

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.

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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

James Howell English Proverbs (1659)

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.

Robert Frost A Boy's Will (1913)

In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.

Jacques Ellul The Betrayal by Technology (1993)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Edison (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.