461 Quotes by Thomas A. Edison

Having a vision for what you want is not enough...Vision without execution is hallucination

The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies to the problem at hand - without growing weary. Because such thinking is often difficult, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it....

A reporter called on Edison to interview him about a substitute for lead in the manufacture of storage batteries that the scientist was seeking. Edison informed the man that he had made 20,000 experiments but none had worked. "Aren't you discouraged by all this waste of effort?" the reporter asked. Edison: "Waste! There's nothing wasted. I have discovered 20,000 things that won't work."

I start where the last man left off.

I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.

Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.

A genius is a talented person who does his homework.

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