Thomas Edison quotes

Born
February 11, 1847 Milan, Ohio, U.S.

Died
October 18, 1931.

Occupation
Inventor, businessman.

Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as America’s greatest inventor.

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

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
– Thomas Edison

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

What you are will show in what you do.
– Thomas Edison

Religion is all bunk.
– Thomas Edison

I start where the last man left off.
– Thomas Edison

Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.
– Thomas Edison

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.
– Thomas Edison

I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
– Thomas Edison

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.
– Thomas Edison

Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.
– Thomas Edison

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.
– Thomas Edison

I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.
– Thomas Edison

Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.
– Thomas Edison

I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.
– Thomas Edison

There’s a way to do it better – find it.
– Thomas Edison

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
– Thomas Edison

They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.
– Thomas Edison

We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.
– Thomas Edison

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
– Thomas Edison

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
– Thomas Edison

Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.
– Thomas Edison

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
– Thomas Edison

When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.
– Thomas Edison

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
– Thomas Edison

Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.
– Thomas Edison

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

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.
– Thomas Edison

Great ideas originate in the muscles.
– Thomas Edison

The body is a community made up of its innumerable cells or inhabitants.
– Thomas Edison

To have a great idea, have a lot of them.
– Thomas Edison

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
– Thomas Edison

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.
– Thomas Edison

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
– Thomas Edison

The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.
– Thomas Edison

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

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

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.
– Thomas Edison

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.
– Thomas Edison

What a man’s mind can create, man’s character can control.
– Thomas Edison