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When an actor is in the moment, he or she is engaged in listening for the next right thing creatively. When a painter is painting, he or she may begin with a plan, but that plan is soon surrendered to the painting's own plan. This is often expressed as 'The brush takes the next stroke.' In dance, in composition, in sculpture, the experience is the same: we are more the conduit than the creator of what we express

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Feb 07, 2026

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Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration.
Thomas Alva Edison

Quote Author: Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 - October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.

Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S. patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Other Thomas Alva Edison Quotes

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent. My main purpose in life is to make money so that I can afford to go on creating more inventions.

I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it. I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it. I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. The dove is my emblem.

A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another. Accordingly, my principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others.

Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. As a result, a genius is often a talented person who has simply done all of his homework.

Because thinking is often hard work, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the labor that is associated with it. If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. It is astonishing how many have difficulty in putting their brains definitely and systematically to work.

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.

I never did anything worth doing entirely by accident and none of my inventions came about totally by accident. They came about by hard work.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure. I believe that restlessness is discontent, and discontent is merely the first necessity of progress.

If parents pass enthusiasm along to their children, they will leave them an estate of incalculable value.

I believe that the science of chemistry alone almost proves the existence of an intelligent creator.

Someday man will harness the rise and fall of the tides, imprison the power of the sun, and release atomic power.

Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best. Life's most soothing things are sweet music and a child's goodnight.

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

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man - and I will show you a failure.

It is remarkable to what lengths people will go to avoid thought.

We do not know one millionth of one percent about anything.

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth- while are first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.

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.

I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.

As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.

Hell, there are no rules here — we're trying to accomplish something.

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishments 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.

If we could do all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

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

The inventor tries to meet the demand of a crazy civilization.

Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

I am wondering what would have happened to me if some fluent talker had converted me to the theory of the eight-hour day and convinced me that it was not fair to my fellow workers to put forth my best efforts in my work. I am glad that the eight-hour day had not been invented when I was a young man. If my life had been made up of eight-hour days, I do not believe I could have accomplished a great deal. This country would not amount to as much as it does if the young men of fifty years ago had been afraid that they might earn more than they were paid for.

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.

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

I never did a day’s work in my life—it was all fun.

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

There is a great directing head of things and people — a supreme being, who looks after the destinies of the world. I have faith in a supreme being, and all my thoughts are regarding the life after death — where the soul goes, what form it takes and its relations to those now living. I am convinced that the body is made up of entities which are intelligent. When one cuts his finger, I believe it is the intelligence of those entities that heals the wound. When one is sick, it is the intelligence of these entities that brings convalescence. You know that there are living cells in the body so tiny that the microscope cannot show them at all. The entity that gives life and motion to the human body is finer still and lies infinitely beyond the reach of our finest scientific instruments. When this entity deserts the body, the body is like a ship without a rudder — deserted, motionless, dead.

I know this world is ruled by Infinite Intelligence. It required Infinite Intelligence to create it and it requires Infinite Intelligence to keep it on its course. 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.

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

I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.

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.

It is very beautiful over there.

I have not failed. I have merely found 10,000 ways that won't work.

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

There is far more danger in public than in private monopoly, for when Government goes into business it can always shift its losses to the taxpayers. Government never makes ends meet—and that is the first requisite of business.

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress.

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

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure.

A teacher sent the following note home with a six-year-old boy: 'He is too stupid to learn.' That boy was Thomas A. Edison.

Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge.

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.

There is almost no limit to which man will not go to avoid thinking.

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

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

None of my inventions came by accident—they came by work.

There is no substitute for hard work.

Genius is 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration.

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