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1 " I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. "
― Thomas A. Edison
2 " Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. "
3 " When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this - you haven't. "
4 " The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense. "
5 " If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. "
6 " Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration. "
7 " 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. "
8 " To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk. "
9 " It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work. "
10 " We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work "
11 " I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world. "
12 " People who will not turn a shovel full of dirt on the project nor contribute a pound of material, will collect more money from the United States than will the People who supply all the material and do all the work. This is the terrible thing about interest ...But here is the point: If the Nation can issue a dollar bond it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good also. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets the money broker collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%. Whereas the currency, the honest sort provided by the Constitution pays nobody but those who contribute in some useful way. It is absurd to say our Country can issue bonds and cannot issue currency. Both are promises to pay, but one fattens the usurer and the other helps the People. If the currency issued by the People were no good, then the bonds would be no good, either. It is a terrible situation when the Government, to insure the National Wealth, must go in debt and submit to ruinous interest charges at the hands of men who control the fictitious value of gold. "
13 " 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. "
14 " The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around. "
15 " 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. "
16 " I haven't failed,I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work. "
17 " I told [John Kruesi] I was going to record talking, and then have the machine talk back. He thought it absurd. However, it was finished, the foil was put on; I then shouted 'Mary had a little lamb', etc. I adjusted the reproducer, and the machine reproduced it perfectly.[On first words spoken on a phonograph.] "
18 " 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. "
19 " Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. "
20 " Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure. "
― Thomas A. Edison , Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison
