Too many men drift lazily into any job, suited or unsuited for them; and when they don’t get along well they blame everybody and everything but themselves. Grouches are nearly always pinheads, small men who have never made any effort to improve their mental capacity.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
“They Won’t Think” (1921)
The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed, if one will only take the pains to train the mind to think. Why do so many men never amount to anything? Because they don’t think.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
“They Won’t Think” (1921)
Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
(Attributed)
If we did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
(Attributed)
Results? Why man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know 50,000 things that won’t work.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
(Attributed)
As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
(Attributed)
What you are will show in what you do.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
(Attributed)
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
(Attributed)
If there is such a thing as luck, then I must be the most unlucky fellow in the world. I’ve never once made a lucky strike in all my life. When I get after something I need, I start finding everything in the world I don’t need — one damn thing after another. I find ninety-nine things I don’t need, and then comes number one hundred , and that — at the very last — turns out to be just what I had been looking for.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor
Remarks to M. A. Rosanoff, “Edison in His Laboratory,” Harper’s (Sep 1932)
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