I am quite correctly described as 'more of a sponge than an inventor....' Thomas A. Edison More Quotes by Thomas A. Edison More Quotes From Thomas A. Edison There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start a new. Thomas A. Edison disaster thank-god mistake Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration. Thomas A. Edison hard-work inspiration science The stomach is the only part of man which can be fully satisfied. The yearning of man's brain for new knowledge and experience and for more pleasant and comfortable surroundings never can be completely met. It is an appetite which cannot be appeased. Thomas A. Edison surroundings brain men Two per cent. is genius, and ninety-eight per cent. is hard work. Thomas A. Edison eight hard-work science I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. Thomas A. Edison atheism proud weapons I would construct and work along various lines until I found them untenable. When one theory was discarded, I developed another at once. I realized very early that this was the only possible way for me to work out all the problems. Thomas A. Edison work-out lines adventure 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. Thomas A. Edison progress government matter There is no subsitute for hard work. Thomas A. Edison hard hard-work Baseball is the greatest of American games. Some say football, but it is my firm belief, and it shall always be, that baseball has no superior. Thomas A. Edison baseball games football I never failed. It just didn't work 10,000 times. Thomas A. Edison 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 discovery motivational war There is a better way to do it - Find it! Thomas A. Edison better-ways way Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Thomas A. Edison invention design inspiration Show me a completely contented person and I'll show you a failure. Thomas A. Edison show-me failure failing I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experience proved that there were great drawbacks found generally before they could be got commercial; but here was something there was no doubt of. Thomas A. Edison success science long Most of the exercise I get is from standing and walking around laboratory tables all day. I derive more benefit and entertainment from this than some of my friends and competitors get from playing games like golf. Thomas A. Edison exercise golf motivational The inventor can't do it all, you've got to change people. We have an enormous capacity to invent super-machinery. But our desire to install the device is weak. Human inertia is the problem, not invention. Something in man makes him resist change. Thomas A. Edison desire men people There is no limit to which a man will not go to avoid thinking. Thomas A. Edison limits men thinking I have not failed 10,000 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. Thomas A. Edison business success inspiring 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 common-sense differences powerful
