Thomas A. Edison

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

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

Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.

Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless.

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

To have a great idea, have a lot of them.

What a man's mind can create, man's character can control.

To do much clear thinking a person must arrange for regular periods of solitude when they can concentrate and indulge the imagination without distraction.

Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.

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.

To me, the idea and expectation that the day is slowly and surely coming when we will be able to honestly say we are our brother's keeper and not his oppressor is very beautiful .

Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. Remedies from chemicals will never stand in favor compared with the products of nature, the living cell of the plant, the final result of the rays of the sun, the mother of all life.

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

Maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth.

I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us- everything that exists - proves that there are infinite laws behind it. There can be no denying this fact. It is mathematical in its precision.

Problems in human engineering will receive during the coming years the same genius and attention which the nineteenth century gave to the more material forms of engineering._x000D_ _x000D_ We have laid good foundations for industrial prosperity, now we want to assure the happiness and growth of the workers through vocational education, vocational guidance, and wisely managed employment departments. A great field for industrial experimentation and statemanship is opening up.

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

Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith and go forward.

The value of an idea lies in the using of it.

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