Thomas A. Edison Motivational Quotations

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

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.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.

Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.

I love great music and art, but I think 'cubist' songs and paintings are hideous.

Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.

Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used used them....

I am quite correctly described as 'more of a sponge than an inventor....'

My main purpose in life is to make money so I can afford to go on creating more inventions....

I am both pleased but astonished by the fact that mankind has not yet begun to use all the means and devices that are available for destruction. I hope that such weapons are never manufactured in quantity.

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

We have merely scratched the surface of the store of knowledge which will come to us. I believe that we are now, a-tremble on the verge of vast discoveries - discoveries so wondrously important they will upset the present trend of human thought and start it along completely new lines .

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.

The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. ~

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.

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.

To me, the idea and expectation that the day is slowly and surely coming when we will be able to honestly say we are our brother's keeper and not his oppressor is very beautiful .

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.

There is time for everything.

Whatever the mind of man creates, should be controlled by man's character.

My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant - but misdirected - ideas of others....

The only time I really become discouraged is when I think of all the things I would like to do and the little time I have in which to do them.

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

Personally, I enjoy working about 18 hours a day. Besides the short catnaps I take each day, I average about four to five hours of sleep per night.

There is always a better way.

Barring serious accidents, if you are not preoccupied with worry and you work hard, you can look forward to a reasonably lengthy existence.... Its not the hard work that kills, its the worrying that kills.

I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom.

As a cure for worrying, work is far better than whiskey. I always found that, if I began to worry, the best thing I could do was focus upon doing something useful and then work very hard at it. Soon, I would forget what was troubling me.

I am 67, but I'm not too old to make a fresh start.

A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another....

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.

The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.

Having a vision for what you want is not enough...Vision without execution is hallucination

Work while others are wishing.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. As a result, a genius is often a talented person who has simply done all of his homework.