Thomas A. Edison Quotes

“I am both pleased but astonished by the fact that mankind has not yet begun to use all the means and devices that are available for destruction. I hope that such weapons are never manufactured in quantity.”

“If there is a better solution... find it.”

“A teacher sent the following note home with a six-year-old boy 'He is too stupid to learn.' That boy was Thomas A. Edison.”

“I never quit until I get what I want.”

“Large portions of life's disappointments are individuals who did not understand that they were so near achievement when they surrendered.”

“People are not remembered by how few times they fail, but by how often they succeed. Every wrong step is another step forward”

“I try not to invent things that people don't need.”

“One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.”

“Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.”

“After we had conducted thousands of experiments on a certain project without solving the problem, one of my associates, after we had conducted the crowning experiment and it had proved a failure, expressed discouragement and disgust over our having failed to find out anything. I cheerily assured him that we had learned something. For we had learned for a certainty that the thing couldnt be done that way, and that we would have to try some other way.”

“The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus.”

“The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child.”

“A lawsuit is the suicide of time.”

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.”

“The beauty of a great idea lies in the art of using it.”

“I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing.”

“Work while others are wishing.”

“A failure teaches you that something can't be done-that way.”

“The money one gets for selling one's soul is always spent in deadening one's conscience, so the net gain at the end of a lifetime is no greater than if the diabolic bargain had not been struck.”

“I have a peculiar theory about radium, and I believe it is the correct one. I believe that there is some mysterious ray pervading the universe that is fluorescing to it. In other words, that all its energy is not self-constructed but that there is a mysterious something in the atmosphere that scientists have not found that is drawing out those infinitesimal atoms and distributing them forcefully and indestructibly.”

“A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job”

“I love great music and art, but I think 'cubist' songs and paintings are hideous.”

“Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can't afford to lose.”

“I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it. I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it. I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. The dove is my emblem.”

“First be sure a thing is wanted or needed, then go ahead.”