Quotes & Sayings About Edison
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Top Edison Quotes
Even though I am nearly deaf, I seem to be gifted with a kind of inner hearing which enables me to detect sounds and noises which the ordinary person does not hear. — Thomas A. Edison
Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something. — Thomas A. Edison
To The Undertaker or Friends Who Open This Coffin:
After laying back the lid of the coffin, remove entirely the pads from the sides of the face, as they are intended merely to steady the head in traveling. If there be any discharge of liquid from the eyes, nose, or mouth, which often occurs from the constant shaking of the cars, wipe it off gently with a soft piece of cotton cloth, slightly moistened.
This body was received by us for embalmment in a condition and the natural condition is preserved. Embalming was/was not possible.
After removing the coffin lid, leave it off for some time and let the body have the air.
Dr. Jupiter Jones, Embalmer & Keeper of the Dead — Edison McDaniels
Until Edison invented the electric light, most of the world was totally covered in darkness. The physical darkness outside and the inner darkness of the soul were mixed together, with no boundary separating the two. — Haruki Murakami
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. — Thomas A. Edison
What manner of people they were only books and other people could tell ... and the tale was a long and gory one dating from the dim, conjectural dawn of history. But being human they were as apt to change as mother nature to remain constant. — Robert Edison Fulton Jr.
Call the roll in your memory of conspicuously successful [business] giants and, if you know anything about their careers, you will be struck by the fact that almost every one of them encountered inordinate difficulties sufficient to crush all but the gamest of spirits. Edison went hungry many times before he became famous. — B.C. Forbes
If he [Thomas Edison] had a needle to find in a haystack, he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. ... Just a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety percent of his labor. — Nikola Tesla
The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do. — Thomas A. Edison
I am much less interested in what is called God's word than in God's deeds. All bibles are man-made. — Thomas A. Edison
Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless. — Thomas A. Edison
The availability of cheap effective lighting alone, following Thomas Edison's invention of the incandescent bulb in 1879, greatly extended the range of waking human consciousness, effectively adding more hours onto the day - for work, for entertainment, for study, for discovery, for consumption. Subsequently, one development led to another, and to yet another, fueled by a corporate economy in developed nations, and then later by the arms race, and then the space race, as human ambition literally outgrew the planet. It seemed that there was no limit on what humanity could achieve. But there was a flaw at the heart of that expansive optimism - namely, that humanity cannot exist as a thing apart from nature; it has no destiny but annihilation apart from the land that gave it birth. — Clark Strand
Failure is really a matter of conceit. People don't work hard because, in their conceit, they imagine they'll succeed without ever making an effort. Most people believe that they'll wake up some day and find themselves rich. Actually, they've got it half right, because eventually they do wake up. — Thomas A. Edison
I do not believe any type of religion should ever be introduced into the public schools of the United States. — Thomas A. Edison
Fooling around with alternating currents is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever. It's too dangerous ... it could kill a man as quick as a bolt of lightning. Direct current is safe. — Thomas A. Edison
I've always said Thomas Edison invented the movie camera to show people killing and kissing. — Quentin Tarantino
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. — Thomas A. Edison
preserving the essence, in fact the breath - when it opened, his museum displayed Thomas Edison's last exhalation, captured by his son in a test tube at Ford's request - of a more durable American experience. — Greg Grandin
The official government radio station was still broadcasting that the New York Power Authority would have power back up to Con Edison and lower Manhattan — Matthew Mather
His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine. — Thomas A. Edison
X-rays ... I am afraid of them. I stopped experimenting with them two years ago, when I came near to losing my eyesight and Dally, my assistant practically lost the use of both of his arms. — Thomas A. Edison
Most people think of ways why their desires or goals would fail, instead of thinking of ways why they will succeed. Do not give in to why it would fail, but why it would succeed. Many people also fail to take action or give up to quickly on their desires or goals. It took Edison 1,000 attempts to obtain his goal the light bulb. People like Latimer improved on Edison's invention at time when our society dictate his status based on the color of his skin. They had the mentality that it would be impossible for them to fail. When you have this mentality, miracles will take place in your life. Remember winners or not quitters and quitters are not winners. Look for opportunities to realize your desires or goals today and every day. — Angela Williamson
Fools call wise men fools. A wise man never calls any man a fool. — Thomas A. Edison
My goal was to make New Jersey's state government a model for all other states to emulate, hopefully thereby to stem, or at least slow down, the flow of power to the federal government. — Charles Edison
That Edison or Lincoln could have been Edison or Lincoln after four years of Harvard is improbable. — Arthur Brisbane
Negative results are just what I want. They're just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don't. — Thomas A. Edison
It is good to be willing to stand as a hero, but you must also be willing to fall as a hero — Luke Edison
The only thing I use my body for is to carry my brain around. — Thomas A. Edison
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. — Thomas A. Edison
I probably did too much thinking in India. I blame it on the roads, for they were superb ... — Robert Edison Fulton Jr.
Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait. — Thomas A. Edison
The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child. — Thomas A. Edison
The radio craze will die out in time. — Thomas A. Edison
To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity. — Thomas A. Edison
One of my other nicknames was Thomas Edison, because I invented so many moves. — Earl Monroe
Friendship is the heaven of life. — Thomas A. Edison
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. — Thomas A. Edison
[In any] machine, the failure of one part to cooperate properly with the other part disorganizes the whole and renders it inoperative for the purpose intended. - THOMAS EDISON R — Graham Moore
I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others ... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent. — Thomas A. Edison
I have always regarded Paine as one of the greatest of all Americans. Never have we had a sounder intelligence in this republic ... It was my good fortune to encounter Thomas Paine's works in my boyhood ... it was, indeed, a revelation to me to read that great thinker's views on political and theological subjects. Paine educated me, then, about many matters of which I had never before thought. I remember, very vividly, the flash of enlightenment that shone from Paine's writings, and I recall thinking, at that time, 'What a pity these works are not today the schoolbooks for all children!' My interest in Paine was not satisfied by my first reading of his works. I went back to them time and again, just as I have done since my boyhood days. — Thomas A. Edison
So far as the religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake ... Religion is all bunk. — Thomas A. Edison
Nobody knows whether our personalities pass on to another existence or sphere, but if we can evolve an instrument so delicate to be manipulated by our personality as it survives in the next life such an instrument ought to record something ... — Thomas A. Edison
The value of an idea lies in the using of it. — Thomas A. Edison
There is no limit to which a man will not go to avoid thinking. — Thomas A. Edison
Writing is not 'lonely work' but "alone work'; authors are known to be reclusive and like spending time with themselves. — Brie Edison
The world owes nothing to any man, but every man owes something to the world. — Thomas A. Edison
Many of the products which create a modern standard of living are only the physical incorporations of ideas- not only the ideas of an Edison or a Ford but the ideas of innumerable anonymous people who figure out the design of supermarkets, the location of gasoline stations, and the million mundane things on which our material well-being depends. Societies which have more people carrying out physical acts and fewer people supplying ideas do not have higher standards of living. Quite the contrary. — Thomas Sowell
In view of our public pledges, we public officials can never again go before the public merely promising election reform. The time for promises is past. — Charles Edison
A new constitution should be more amendable. A needlessly confusing system of courts should be altered to produce an arrangement that would be simple, responsible, and less awkward. — Charles Edison
Oh these mathematicians make me tired! When you ask them to work out a sum they take a piece of paper, cover it with rows of A's, B's, and X's and Y's ... scatter a mess of flyspecks over them, and then give you an answer that's all wrong! — Thomas A. Edison
Once I can focus in on something, I just play it in my mind until an idea comes from out of nowhere, and it's usually the key to the whole song. It's the idea that matters. It's like electricity was around long before Edison harnessed it. — Bob Dylan
Large portions of life's disappointments are individuals who did not understand that they were so near achievement when they surrendered. — Thomas A. Edison
Edison was by far the most successful and, probably, the last exponent of the purely empirical method of investigation. Everything he achieved was the result of persistent trials and experiments often performed at random but always attesting extraordinary vigor and resource. Starting from a few known elements, he would make their combinations and permutations, tabulate them and run through the whole list, completing test after test with incredible rapidity until he obtained a clue. His mind was dominated by one idea, to leave no stone unturned, to exhaust every possibility. — Nikola Tesla
I had seen that once before, bleeding water. A little baby I worked on as a resident in training. That poor kid had been shot as well - his father had blasted away the top of his head with a shotgun - and we couldn't begin to stop the bloodletting in that case. "Looking pretty thin down here," I hollered when the stuff coming out his wounds was no more than pink salt water. That baby's heart stopped, started, stopped and started a dozen times before it finally gave up the ghost and we pronounced him. I could have read a newspaper through the watery stuff coming out his veins by then. — Edison McDaniels
Sticking to it is the genius. — Thomas A. Edison
Edison pressed on and designed a range of concrete furnishings - bureaus, cupboards, chairs, even a concrete piano - to go with his concrete houses. He promised that soon he would offer, for just $5, a double bed that would never wear out. The entire range was to be unveiled at a cement industry show in New York in 1912. In the event, when the show opened, the Edison stand was bare. No one from the Edison company ever offered an explanation. It was the last anyone ever heard of concrete furniture. As far as is known, Edison never discussed the matter. A — Bill Bryson
I want to say here and now, that I demand unshakable integrity of every State employee. — Charles Edison
I don't like Thomas Edison. I'm a fan of Nicolai Tesla. — David Lynch
I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. I take half-matured schemes for mechanical development and make them practical. I am a sort of a middleman between the long-haired and impractical inventor and the hard-headed business man who measures all things in terms of dollars and cents. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others. — Thomas A. Edison
The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary. — Thomas A. Edison
No Such Thing as Bad Results — Thomas A. Edison
My first hero was Thomas Edison, whose adult life had consisted entirely of free time. — Jonathan Franzen
It is my happy privilege to be able to stand here and tell you that if you elect me you will have elected a governor who has made no promises of preferment to any man or group. — Charles Edison
[Sweets Edison] was one of the greatest stylists in Jazz of all time. And on top of that, when you listen to him, you say 'yes, that's Sweets' and you automatically smile. This is really unique. He changed the way how to play this instrument. — Clark Terry
Without doubt, Thomas Edison is my greatest contemporary. — Henry Ford
Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability ... We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation. — Thomas A. Edison
After nearly a year of mourning, I feel like the Victorians when Edison came along- all those years in the darkness, and then electric light. I've got the earth between my toes. — Harriet Reuter Hapgood
The greatest discoveries will be along spiritual lines. This is the field where miracles are going to happen. Spiritual power is the greatest underdeveloped power and has the greatest future. — Thomas A. Edison
I never did anything worth doing entirely by accident ... Almost none of my inventions came about totally by accident. They were achieved by having trained myself to endure and tolerate hard work. — Thomas A. Edison
I consider myself an inventor first and an entrepreneur second. In real life, my hero is Thomas Edison. He was a great inventor, but also an outstanding entrepreneur who was able to sell his inventions to the masses. He didn't just develop the light bulb; he invented the entire electric grid and power distribution system. — Aaron Patzer
I have had a lot of success with failure — Thomas A. Edison
I'm one of those people that think Thomas Edison and the light bulb changed the world more than Karl Marx ever did. — Steve Jobs
Never go to sleep
without a request to your subconscious. — Thomas A. Edison
There's a poster with Thomas Edison's quote: GENIUS IS 1 PERCENT INSPIRATION AND 99 PERCENT PERSPIRATION. — Lauren Oliver
Thomas Edison was not, Paul thought, the first man to become rich by inventing something clever. Rather, he was the first man to build a factory for harnessing cleverness. — Graham Moore
Everyone steals in commerce and industry. I've stolen a lot, myself. But I know how to steal! They don't know how to steal! — Thomas A. Edison
You only fail when you stop trying. — Thomas Edison
It is remarkable to what lengths people will go to avoid thought. — Thomas A. Edison
The dove is my emblem. — Thomas A. Edison
He [Thomas Edison] considered [money] as a raw material, like metal, to be used rather than amassed, and so he kept plowing his funds into new projects. Several times he was all but bankrupt. But he refused to let dollar signs govern his actions. — Charles Edison
Nothing that's good works by itself, you've got to make the damn thing work. — Thomas A. Edison
During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple. I would construct a theory and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. Then it would be discarded at once and another theory evolved. This was the only possible way for me to work out the problem. — Thomas A. Edison
I wanted to be an inventor, whatever I thought that meant then. I guess I was thinking of Edison or maybe James Watt. Or maybe even Newton. — David Antin
I believe in the existence of a Supreme Intelligence pervading the Universe. — Thomas A. Edison
The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil. — Thomas A. Edison
I was at the foot of my class. — Thomas A. Edison
The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary purpose of our public schools. The mind of a child is naturally active, it develops through exercise. Give a child plenty of exercise, for body and brain. The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation. — Thomas A. Edison
Because I readily absorb ideas from every source - frequently starting where the last person left off - I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it. — Thomas A. Edison
I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. — Thomas A. Edison