Thomas A. Edison
Thomas A. Edison
Thomas Alva Edisonwas an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park", he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionInventor
Date of Birth11 February 1847
CountryUnited States of America
Thomas A. Edison quotes about
I never once made a discovery ... I speak without exaggeration that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with the electric light ... Yet in only two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory.
I did not fail two thousand times. I merely found two thousand ways not to make a lightbulb.
It is apparent to me that the possibilities of the aeroplane, which two or three years ago were thought to hold the solution to the [flying machine] problem, have been exhausted, and that we must turn elsewhere.
I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed 3,000 different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory. My chief difficulty was in constructing the carbon filament. . . . Every quarter of the globe was ransacked by my agents, and all sorts of the queerest materials used, until finally the shred of bamboo, now utilized by us, was settled upon.
I shall make electricity so cheap that only the rich can afford to burn candles
Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.
The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.
The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.
We now know a thousand ways not to build a light bulb
If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.
If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves.
Nearly every man who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. that's not the place to become discouraged.
Most people don't recognize opportunity when it comes, because it's usually dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work.
The best thinking has been done in solitude.