Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best.
I am not overly impressed by the great names and reputations of those who might be trying to beat me to an invention. It’s their ‘ideas’ that appeal to me. I am quite correctly described as ’more of a sponge than an inventor.
I am so deaf I am debarred from hearing any time articulation and have to depend on the judgment of others.
I was always afraid of things that worked the first time. Long experience proved that there were great drawbacks found generally before they could be got commercial; but here was something there was no doubt of.
I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt.
M. A. Rosanoff: Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe. Edison: There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish somep’n!
I have been at work for some time building an apparatus to see if it is possible for personalities which have left this earth to communicate with us.
The radio craze will die out in time.
Let the public throw bouquets to the inventors and in time we will all be happy.
As Danand Ian over at the Lifestyle Business Podcast say: Rush to failure.
No Such Thing as Bad Results.
The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.
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.
Failure is really a matter of conceit. People don’t work hard because, in their conceit, they imagine they’ll succeed without ever making an effort. Most people believe that they’ll wake up some day and find themselves rich. Actually, they’ve got it half right, because eventually they do wake up.
They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward.
His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.
It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.
I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity.
I am 67, but I’m not too old to make a fresh start.