Thomas A. Edison Quotes

“I am long on ideas, but short on time. I expect to live to be only about a hundred.”

“Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. Remedies from chemicals will never stand in favor compared with the products of nature, the living cell of the plant, the final result of the rays of the sun, the mother of all life.”

“The only thing I use my body for is to carry my brain around.”

“When we learn how to store electricity, we will cease being apes ourselves; until then we are tailless orangutans. You see, we should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy. Do we use them? Oh, no! We burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property.”

“Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.”

“The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness.”

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

“Baseball is the greatest of American games. Some say football, but it is my firm belief, and it shall always be, that baseball has no superior.”

“I was at the foot of my class.”

“Accomplishing something provides the only real satisfaction in life.”

“The secret of success is focus of purpose.”

“A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another.”

“Any large extension of the Government into business affairs - no matter what the pretense and no matter how the the extension is labeled - will be bound to promote waste and put a curb on our prosperity and progress.”

“I have determined that there is no market for talking pictures”

“The trouble with most people is that they quit before they start.”

“Somewhere between the ages of eleven and fifteen, the average child begins to suffer from an atrophy, the paralysis of curiosity and the suspension of the power to observe. The trouble, I should judge, to lie with the schools.”

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

“Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best”

“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.”

“My mother was the making of me. She was so true and so sure of me, I felt that I had someone to live for - someone I must not disappoint. The memory of my mother will always be a blessing to me.”

“Mr. Edison worked endlessly on a problem, using the method of elimination. If a person asked him if he were discouraged because so many attempts proved unavailing, he would say, "No, I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.".”

“The strength of the Constitution, lies in the will of the people to defend it.”

“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.”

“To me, the idea and expectation that the day is slowly and surely coming when we will be able to honestly say we are our brother's keeper and not his oppressor is very beautiful .”

“There cannot be overproduction of anything which men and women want. And their wants are unlimited, except by the size of their stomachs.”