Thomas A. Edison Quotes
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A reporter called on Edison to interview him about a substitute for lead in the manufacture of storage batteries that the scientist was seeking. Edison informed the man that he had made 20,000 experiments but none had worked. "Aren't you discouraged by all this waste of effort?" the reporter asked. Edison: "Waste! There's nothing wasted. I have discovered 20,000 things that won't work."
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Through all the years of experimenting and research, I never once made a discovery. I start where the last man left off... All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention pure and simple.
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The dove is my emblem.
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I consider Paine our greatest political thinker. As we have not advanced, and perhaps never shall advance, beyond the Declaration and Constitution, so Paine has had no successors who extended his principles.
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I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process.
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I've never made a mistake. I've only learned from experience.
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Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
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Sticking to it is the genius.
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The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will involve the patient in the proper use of food, fresh air and exercise.
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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.
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I was at the foot of my class.
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The inventor tries to meet the demand of a crazy civilization.
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For faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction - faith in fiction is a damnable false hope.
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Perhaps dandruff is the excreta of the mind the quantity of this material being directly proportional to the amount of reading one indulges in. A book on German metaphysics would thus easily ruin a dress suit.
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The perils of overwork are slight compared with the dangers of inactivity.
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The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.
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Never be discouraged, because every wrong turn attempt, when left behind you, is another step forward taking you closer to your goals.
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Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can't afford to lose.
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A man’s best friend is a good wife.
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The great trouble is that the preachers get the children from six to seven years of age and then it is almost impossible to do anything with them.
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Life's most soothing things are a child's goodnight and sweet music.
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The roots of tobacco plants must go clear through to hell. Satan's principal agent Dyspepsia must have charge of this branch of the vegetable kingdom.
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In creating technology for ourselves we created it for the world.
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If I had not had so much ambition and not tried to do so many things, I probably would have been happier, but less useful.