Quotes by Thomas A. Edison

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

"It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work."

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

"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work."

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

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

"I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success."

"The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense."

"I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us- everything that exists - proves that there are infinite laws behind it. There can be no denying this fact. It is mathematical in its precision."

"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."

"Great ideas originate in the muscles."

"Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless."

"Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure."

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

"To have a great idea, have a lot of them."

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

"Religion is all bunk."

"Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something."

"Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success."

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

"I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun."

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

"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless."

"There is no substitute for hard work."

"Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!"

"The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil."

"I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world."

"One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success."

"To my mind the old masters are not art their value is in their scarcity."

"There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever."