Quote

None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

Thomas A. Edison

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Thomas A. Edison
Age: 84 †
Born: 1847
Born: February 11
Died: 1931
Died: October 18
Businessperson
Engineer
Entrepreneur
Film Director
Inventor
Lighting Designer
Mathematician
Physicist
Screenwriter
Milan
Ohio
Thomas A. Edison
Thomas Edison
Edison Thomas Alva
Comes
Trials
Boils
Need
Accidents
Inventions
Needs
Invention
Cent
Make
Nine
Trial
Mets
Cents
None
Ninety
Inspiration
Accident
Came
Worthwhile
Perspiration

More quotes by Thomas A. Edison

Image
The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
Radio is just a fashion contrivance that will soon die out. It is obvious that there never will be invented a proper receiver!
Thomas A. Edison
Image
Success is the result of hard work.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
I know of over 3,000 ways [that] a light bulb does not work.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best
Thomas A. Edison
Image
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
Image
From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
Inspiration can be found in a pile of junk. Sometimes, you can put it together with a good imagination and invent something.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
In 'Common Sense' Paine flared forth with a document so powerful that the Revolution became inevitable. Washington recognized the difference, and in his calm way said that matters never could be the same again.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
I have not failed 10,000 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
My success is due more to my ability to work continuously on one thing without stopping than to any other single quality.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
My main purpose in life is to make enough money to create ever more inventions…. The dove is my emblem…. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it…. I am proud of the fact that I have never invented weapons to kill….
Thomas A. Edison
Image
Direct thought is not an attribute of feminity. In this, women are now centuries behind man.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
I start where the last man left off. What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of a man can achieve.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
Seeming to do is not doing.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
The United States, and other advanced nations, will someday be able to produce instruments of death so terrible the world will be in abject terror of itself and its ability to end civilization.... Such war-making weapons should be developed - but only for purposes of discovery and experimentation
Thomas A. Edison
Image
The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
Let the public throw bouquets to the inventors and in time we will all be happy.
Thomas A. Edison
Image
A failure teaches you that something can't be done-that way.
Thomas A. Edison