Thomas A. Edison Quotes

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

Every project has challenges, and every project has its rewards.

I used to be an amateur inventor when I was a kid; I'm always inventing something.

The business of biomedical research is mostly about failure. Few projects we commission will ultimately result in success. But every study we do contributes to the body of knowledge that brings science and society closer to a solution.

I thought I wanted to be an inventor but then discovered you couldn't study inventing!

Do not bring me your successes; they weaken me. Bring me your problems; they strengthen me.

I'll give you three guesses, Rabbit. Digging holes in the ground? Wrong. Leaping from branch to branch of a young oak tree? Wrong. Waiting for somebody to help me out of the river? Right. Give Rabbit time, and he'll always get the answer.

I made 5,127 prototypes of my vaccum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That’s how I came up with a solution. So I don’t mind failure.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who make excuses and those who get results. An excuse person will find any excuse for why a job was not done, and a results person will find any reason why it can be done. Be a creator, not a reactor.

Failures are easier to repeat than successes.

What I tend to do is to wake about five in the morning-this happens quite often-think about the invention, and then image it in my mind in 3D, as a kind of construct. Then I do experiments with the image...sort of rotate it, and say, 'Well what'll happen if one does this?' And by the time I get up for breakfast I can usually go to the bench and make a string and sealing wax model that works straight off, because I've done most of the experiments already.

Girls Scouts taught me to succeed (cookie selling) and to fail (knot tying) and to learn and benefit from both.

The world is very good at encouraging you to go along with the status quo and at basking in your successes. But when you hit a wall in your personal life, and you screw up, people don't give you a chance to navigate your way through it and tap into what's extraordinary about you.

You never lose until you actually give up.

Hard labor and good intentions are not sufficient to carry a man through to success.

Consider how great is the encouragement which all the world gives to the lover; neither is he supposed to be doing anything dishonourable; but if he succeeds he is praised, and if he fail he is blamed.

It is in the whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.

The greatest million dollar insight I can give anybody is find a big problem and then solve it in a big way.

If at first you don't succeed - give it up. It isn't worth the pain.

It's hard to answer a question you haven't been asked. It's hard to show you tried unless you end up succeeding.

There are some persons who never succeed from being too indolent to undertake anything; and others who regularly fail, because the instant they find success in their power, they grow indifferent, and give over the attempt.

It's a failure only if you don't get anything out of it, Thomas Edison said he knew 999 ways that a light bulb did not work; yet we have lights today.

It matters that you don't just give up.

Losers assemble in small groups & complain, winners assemble as a team & find ways to win.

When you give total effort - everything you have - the score can never make you a loser. And when you do less, it can't somehow magically turn you into a winner.