Thomas Edison

“Hell! There ain't no rules around here! We are tryin' to accomplish somep'n!”

“To Monsieur Eiffel the Engineer, the brave builder of so gigantic and original a specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu.”

“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.”

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

“X-rays ... I am afraid of them. I stopped experimenting with them two years ago, when I came near to losing my eyesight and Dally, my assistant practically lost the use of both of his arms.”

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

“My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe it. What a soul may be is beyond my understanding.”

“Music on the radio is very poor because it is badly distorted ... I quite approve of radios but they should not be used for musical purposes. They are good for news and for reports of ball games, boxing matches and speeches, where distortion is not noticeable.”

“The memory of Tom Paine will outlive all this. No man who helped to lay the foundations of our liberty — who stepped forth as the champion of so difficult a cause — can be permanently obscured by such attacks. Tom Paine should be read by his countrymen. I commend his fame to their hands.”

“I believe in the existence of a Supreme Intelligence pervading the Universe.”

“We really haven't got any great amount of data on the subject, and without data how can we reach any definite conclusions? All we have — everything — favors the idea of what religionists call the "Hereafter." Science, if it ever learns the facts, probably will find another more definitely descriptive term.”

“It is very beautiful over there!”

“We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.”

“Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.”

“So far as the religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake … Religion is all bunk.”

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

“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!”

“I find out what the world needs. Then, I go ahead and invent it.”

“Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.”

“I never did a day's work in my life, it was all fun.”

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

“I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God.”

“I do not believe in the God of the theologians; but that there is a Supreme Intelligence I do not doubt”

“I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours — and thrived on it.”