Quotes from Thomas A. Edison

When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.

Success is based on imagination plus ambition and the will to work.

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

Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.

I have not failed. I have successfully discovered 1200 ideas that don't work.

The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness.

I didn't fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn't work.

If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.

I think work is the world's greatest fun.

I never did anything worth doing entirely by accident. . . Almost none of my inventions came about totally by accident. They were achieved by having trained myself to endure and tolerate hard work.

I am long on ideas but short on time. I expect to live only about a hundred years.

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.

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.

There is no subsitute for hard work.

Of the 200 light bulbs that didn't work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt.

I have not failed 10,000 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work.

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.

I never failed. It just didn't work 10,000 times.

I know of over 3,000 ways [that] a light bulb does not work.

We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work

The beauty of a great idea lies in the art of using it.

Incurably religious, that is the best way to describe the mental condition of so many people.

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

Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.