Oh these mathematicians make me tired! When you ask them to work out a sum they take a piece of paper, cover… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. I take half-matured schemes for mechanical development… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary purpose of our public… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant - but misdirected - ideas of others.... — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it. I never perfected an invention that I did… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will involve the patient in the proper use of food, fresh air… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
The entity that gives life and motion to the human body is finer still and lies infinitely beyond the reach of our… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is an intuition-and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise.… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
The biggest failure of man is that he gives up before he realizes how close he was to success. — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
We are striking it big in the electric light, better than my vivid imagination first conceived. Where this thing is going to stop Lord… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
I will not say I failed 1000 times, I will say that I discovered there are 1000 ways that can cause failure — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
Even though I am nearly deaf, I seem to be gifted with a kind of inner hearing which enables me to detect sounds and… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
The very first thing an executive must have is a fine memory. Of course it does not follow that a man with a fine… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
Personally, I enjoy working about 18 hours a day. Besides the short catnaps I take each day, I average about four to five hours… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed, if on will only take the pains to train the… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
“People who will not turn a shovel full of dirt on the project nor contribute a pound of material, will collect more money from… — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes. — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
I remember that I was never able to get along at school. I was at the foot of the class. — Thomas A. Edison Copy Share Image
