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Thomas Edison Quotes (1847-1931)
Inventor
About Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (11 February 1847 – 18 October 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life worldwide into the twenty-first century.
Best Thomas Edison Quotes
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Thomas Edison quotes.
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
“Hell! There ain't no rules around here! We are tryin' to accomplish somep'n!”
“I believe in the existence of a Supreme Intelligence pervading the Universe.”
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
“I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt”
“I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God.”
“Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.”
“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
“I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours — and thrived on it.”
“X-rays ... I am afraid of them. I stopped experimenting with them two years ago, when I came near to losing my eyesight and Dally, my assistant practically lost the use of both of his arms.”
“My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe it. What a soul may be is beyond my understanding.”
“To Monsieur Eiffel the Engineer, the brave builder of so gigantic and original a specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu.”
“The memory of Tom Paine will outlive all this. No man who helped to lay the foundations of our liberty — who stepped forth as the champion of so difficult a cause — can be permanently obscured by such attacks. Tom Paine should be read by his countrymen. I commend his fame to their hands.”
“We really haven't got any great amount of data on the subject, and without data how can we reach any definite conclusions? All we have — everything — favors the idea of what religionists call the "Hereafter." Science, if it ever learns the facts, probably will find another more definitely descriptive term.”
Thomas Edison Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Thomas Edison quotes by topic.
Thomas Edison on Work 3 quotes
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Edison on God 2 quotes
“I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt.”
Thomas Edison on Information
Thomas Edison on Invention
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
Thomas Edison on Electricity
“We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”
Thomas Edison on Opportunity
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Edison on Freethought
“I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt.”
Thomas Edison on Nonviolence
“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”
Thomas Edison on Renewable energy
Thomas Edison on 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.”
Thomas Edison on Sleep
“I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours — and thrived on it.”
Thomas Edison on Bamboo
“My chief difficulty was in constructing the carbon filament, the incandescence of which is the source of the light...Every quarter of the globe was ransacked by my agents, and all sorts of the queerest materials used, until finally the shred of bamboo, now utilized by us, was settled upon.”
What Thomas Edison Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Thomas Edison shared regarding contemporaries.
Quotes About Thomas Edison
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Thomas Edison from others.
G. K. Chesterton on Thomas Edison
“To my simple mind it is not obvious that a successful electrician is an authority on the immortal soul, any more than that a successful military strategist has an ear for music, or an admirable French cook a grasp of the higher mathematics.”
Henry Ford on Thomas Edison
“He felt there was a central processing core of life that went on and on. That was his conclusion. We talked of it many times together . . . Call it religion or what you like, Mr. Edison believed that the universe was alive and that it was responsive to man's deep necessity. It was an intelligent and hopeful religion if there ever was one. Mr. Edison went away expecting light, not darkness.”
Temple Grandin "Society Is Failing Visual Thinkers on Thomas Edison
“It impressed me that Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers were so single-minded in figuring out how to make a light bulb or an airplane. They spent lots of time obsessively perfecting their inventions.”
Nikola Tesla on Thomas Edison
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. … I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety percent of his labor.”
Arthur L. Walsh on Thomas Edison
“He never was an atheist. Although he subscribed to no orthodox creed, no one who knew him could have doubted his belief in and reverence for a Supreme Intelligence, and his whole life, in which the ideal of honest, loving service to his fellowman was predominant, indicated faithfully those two commandments wherein lies "all the law and all the prophets."”
Disputed Quotes
Quotes attributed to Thomas Edison that are questionable.
“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”
“When you've exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You Haven't!”
Misattributed Quotes
Quotes mistakenly credited to Thomas Edison
“There is time for everything.”
“I am much less interested in what is called God's word than in God's deeds. All bibles are man-made.”
About Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (11 February 1847 – 18 October 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life worldwide into the twenty-first century.