Thomas Alva Edison was born in 1847, an American inventor known as one of the most prolific inventors. He is credited with hundreds of inventions, including the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb.
Though he was primarily a businessman, he had a solid, inventive bent, and his versatility in this regard earned him his greatest fame. He often did not patent any of his ideas because he believed it would be better for society if these inventions were freely available for anyone to use and benefit from.
He was a prolific inventor who holds 1,093 U.S. patents in electric current, light bulbs, motion pictures, telegraphs, telephones, and many others.
Read out his most inspiring quotes that will motivate you to work hard and achieve success.
77 Thomas Edison Quotes That Will Motivate You To Succeed
“Never get discouraged if you fail. Learn from it. Keep trying.”
“There is no substitute for hard work.”
“Great ideas originate in the muscles.”
“Many of life’s failure are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“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.”
“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”
“I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing.”
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
“Good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”
“There is far more opportunity than there is ability.”
“The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.”
“You can’t realize your dreams unless you have one to begin with.”
“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in the overalls and looks like hard work.”
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
“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.”
“Vision without execution is hallucination.”
“Success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration!”
“I do not believe in God of the theologians; but that there is a supreme intelligence I do not doubt.”
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.”
“The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.”
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
“If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”
“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.”
“Hard work, nothing to divert my thought, clear air and simple food made my life very pleasant.”
“Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.”
“There is time for everything.”
“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”
“There are no rules – we’re trying to accomplish something.”
“I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.”
“When a man desires a thing so deeply that he is willing to stake his entire future on a single turn of the wheel in order to get it, he is sure to win.”
“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.”
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”
“The thing I lose patience with the most is the clock. Its hands move too fast.”
“I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
“I start where the last man left off.”
“Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.”
“I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.”
“I never did anything worth doing by accident.”
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work: second, stick-to-itiveness: third, common sense.”
“Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.”
“There’s a way to do it better. Find it.”
“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.”
“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”
“We shall have no better conditions in the future if we are satisfied with all those which we have at present.”
“The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.”
“I’ve never made a mistake. I’ve only learned from experience.”
“What you are will show in what you do.”
“To my mind the old masters are not art; their value is in their scarcity.”
“Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.”
“His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.”
“Discontent is the first necessity of progress.”
“There’s a way to do it better – Find it.”
“You can’t realise your dreams unless you have one to begin with.”
“What a man’s mind can create, man’s character should control.”
“There’s a way to do it better – find it.”
“I failed my way to success.”
“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
“Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.”
“The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.”
“The man who doesn’t make up his mind to cultivate the habit of thinking misses the greatest pleasure in life.” — Thomas Edison
“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!”
“Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the thing that he can least afford to waste or lose.”
“To have a great idea, have a lot of them.”
“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.”
“Not everything of value in life comes from books- experience the world.”
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“I don’t live with the past; I am living for to-day and to-morrow.”
“Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.”
“When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.”
“I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.”
“Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.”
