100 Thomas Edison Quotes on Innovation and Invention

From innovation and creativity to hard work and success, our Thomas Edison quotes offer inspiration for you to achieve your goals and dreams.

Thomas Edison was one of the greatest inventors in history, responsible for countless innovations that have shaped the modern world as we know it. From the light bulb and the phonograph to the motion picture camera and the alkaline battery, Edison’s inventions have transformed the way we live, work, and communicate.

But beyond his technical brilliance, Edison was also a wise and insightful thinker, with a gift for distilling complex ideas into simple and memorable words. In this article, we’ll explore some of the most inspiring Thomas Edison quotes.

They offering a glimpse into the mind of this legendary inventor and the principles that drove his success. Our Thomas Edison quotes are sure to inspire and enlighten. Whether you’re looking to spark your creativity, overcome obstacles, or simply embrace a spirit of innovation. Lets delve!

Famous Thomas Edison quotes

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
Thomas A. Edison

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 A. Edison

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison

Famous Thomas Edison quotes
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Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.
Thomas A. Edison

Success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration!
Thomas A. Edison

Having a vision for what you want is not enough… Vision without execution is hallucination.
Thomas A. Edison

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas A. Edison quote - Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
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What you are will show in what you do.
Thomas A. Edison

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety–nine percent perspiration. As a result, a genius is often a talented person who has simply done all of his homework.
Thomas A. Edison

Motivational Thomas Edison quotes

Be courageous! Have faith! Go forward.
Thomas A. Edison

The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.
Thomas A. Edison

I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom.
Thomas A. Edison

Motivational Thomas Edison quotes
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Remember, life is all what you focus on. Learn lessons and keep moving forward towards your goals and dreams.
Thomas A. Edison

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.
Thomas A. Edison

If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
Thomas A. Edison

Tomorrow is my exam but I don’t care because a single sheet of paper can’t decide my future.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas A. Edison quote - Tomorrow is my exam but I don't care because a single sheet of paper can't decide my future.
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My success is due more to my ability to work continuously on one thing without stopping than to any other single quality.
Thomas A. Edison

The first 40 hours of work per week are for survival. Everything after that is for success.
Thomas A. Edison

There is a better way for everything. Find it.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison quotes on innovation

Continued innovation is the best way to beat the competition.
Thomas A. Edison

The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.
Thomas A. Edison

Focus on how the end–user customers perceive the impact of your innovation – rather than on how you, the innovators, perceive it.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison quotes on innovation
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When we learn how to store electricity, we will cease being apes ourselves; until then we are tailless orangutans. You see, we should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy. Do we use them? Oh, no! We burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property.
Thomas A. Edison

We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.
Thomas A. Edison

Vision without execution is delusion.
Thomas A. Edison

Everyone steals in commerce and industry. I’ve stolen a lot, myself. But I know how to steal! They don’t know how to steal!
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas A. Edison quote - Everyone steals in commerce and industry. I've stolen a lot, myself. But I know how to steal! They don't know how to steal!
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I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.
Thomas A. Edison

The perils of overwork are slight compared with the dangers of inactivity.
Thomas A. Edison

I get my ideas from listening from within.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison quotes about inventions

From the light bulb to the phonograph, check out these inspiring Thomas Edison quotes about inventions!

The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child.
Thomas A. Edison

I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.
Thomas A. Edison

None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety–nine per cent perspiration.
Thomas A. Edison

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.
Thomas A. Edison

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
Thomas A. Edison

I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.
Thomas A. Edison

During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple. I would construct a theory and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. Then it would be discarded at once and another theory evolved. This was the only possible way for me to work out the problem.
Thomas A. Edison

Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best.
Thomas A. Edison

I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come indirectly through accident, except the phonograph. No, when I have, fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go about it, and make trial after trial, until it comes.
Thomas A. Edison

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison quotes on failure

Learn from the best with these Thomas Edison quotes about taking risks and embracing failure.

People are not remembered by how few times they fail, but by how often they succeed. Every wrong step is another step forward.
Thomas A. Edison

Every failure is a lesson learned about your strategy.
Thomas A. Edison

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 A. Edison

I failed my way to success.
Thomas A. Edison

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.
Thomas A. Edison

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

The biggest failure of man is that he gives up before he realizes how close he was to success.
Thomas A. Edison

Failure is the most effective technique to optimize strategic planning, implementation and processes.
Thomas A. Edison

Never say II failed 99 times, say I discovered 99 ways which causes failure!
Thomas A. Edison

Each time you fail, you have eliminated another wrong option.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison quotes on success

The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus.
Thomas A. Edison

Success is the product of the severest kind of mental and physical application.
Thomas A. Edison

The secret of success is focus of purpose.
Thomas A. Edison

Success is the result of hard work.
Thomas A. Edison

The real measure of success is the number of experiments that can be crowded into 24 hours.
Thomas A. Edison

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.
Thomas A. Edison

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick–to–itiveness, and Common sense.
Thomas A. Edison

Success depends on how many experiments you can fit into 24 hours.
Thomas A. Edison

I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.
Thomas A. Edison

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

Thomas Edison quotes about opportunity

Sleep is like a drug. Take too much at a time and it makes you dopey. You lose time and opportunities.
Thomas A. Edison

There is much more opportunity than there are people to see it.
Thomas A. Edison

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work.
Thomas A. Edison

We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy – sun, wind and tide. I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
Thomas A. Edison

There is far more opportunity than there is ability.
Thomas A. Edison

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.
Thomas A. Edison

Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability…. We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.
Thomas A. Edison

Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.
Thomas A. Edison

Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used used them.
Thomas A. Edison

I never view mistakes as failures. They are simply opportunities to find out what doesn’t work.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison quotes on work

Barring serious accidents, if you are not preoccupied with worry and you work hard, you can look forward to a reasonably lengthy existence… Its not the hard work that kills, its the worrying that kills.
Thomas A. Edison

There seems to be no limit to which some men will go to avoid the labor of thinking. Thinking is hard work.
Thomas A. Edison

Being busy does not always mean real work.
Thomas A. Edison

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.
Thomas A. Edison

Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.
Thomas A. Edison

Nothing that’s good works by itself, you’ve got to make the damn thing work.
Thomas A. Edison

Education isn’t play–and it can’t be made to look like play. It is hard, hard work. But it can be made interesting work.
Thomas A. Edison

There is no subsitute for hard work.
Thomas A. Edison

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.
Thomas A. Edison

Work while others are wishing.
Thomas A. Edison

Inspirational Thomas Edison quotes

The man who doesn’t make up his mind to cultivate the habit of thinking misses the greatest pleasure in life.
Thomas A. Edison

You can’t realize your dreams unless you have one to begin with.
Thomas A. Edison

The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.
Thomas A. Edison

When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.
Thomas A. Edison

Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty–five percent would rather die than think.
Thomas A. Edison

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.
Thomas A. Edison

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.
Thomas A. Edison

The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed, if on will only take the pains to train the mind to think.
Thomas A. Edison

We shall have no better conditions in the future if we are satisfied with all those which we have at present.
Thomas A. Edison

The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.
Thomas A. Edison

Thomas Edison quotes about perseverance

They were not failures, they were new found ways of what does not work.
Thomas A. Edison

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.
Thomas A. Edison

The only time I really become discouraged is when I think of all the things I would like to do and the little time I have in which to do them.
Thomas A. Edison

I never quit until I get what I want.
Thomas A. Edison

The trouble with most people is that they quit before they start.
Thomas A. Edison

As a cure for worrying, work is far better than whiskey. I always found that, if I began to worry, the best thing I could do was focus upon doing something useful and then work very hard at it. Soon, I would forget what was troubling me.
Thomas A. Edison

I can accept failure,e veryonefails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
Thomas A. Edison

No, I haven’t failed thousands of times. On the contrary, I have successfully eliminated thousands of ideas that do not work!
Thomas A. Edison

We haven’t failed. We now know a thousand things that won’t work, so we are much closer to finding what will.
Thomas A. Edison

I never once failed at making a light bulb. I just found out 99 ways not to make one.
Thomas A. Edison

Final thoughts

These Thomas Edison quotes offer a wealth of wisdom and insight into the mind of one of history’s greatest inventors. Whether you’re an inventor, an entrepreneur, or simply someone looking to overcome challenges, they offer a valuable roadmap for success.

By tapping into the principles that drove Edison’s success, you can learn to embrace failure as a stepping stone to success, build perseverance, and never lose sight to pursue your dreams. So take a moment to reflect on these inspiring Thomas Edison quotes, and let them guide you on your own journey to greatness.

Hope that our collection has offered you some valuable insight and inspiration. If you found this collection helpful, don’t hesitate to share it with others who might benefit from Edison’s wisdom. Together, we can all learn from the best and create a brighter future for ourselves and those around us.

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