Thomas Edison Quotes 1–30 of 47 Quotes
Thomas Alva Edison (11 February 1847 – 18 October 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life worldwide into the twenty-first century.
Below are 30 of 47 sourced Thomas Edison quotes. Sources and related information appear under each quote. Use the 'Cite this quote' link to get citation references.
“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: This is presented as a statement of 1877, as quoted in From Telegraph to Light Bulb with Thomas Edison (2007) by Deborah Headstrom-Page, p. 22
“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.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: When Thomas Edison visited the Eiffel Tower during the 1889 World's Fair, he signed the guestbook with this message, as quoted in The Tallest Tower by Joseph Harris, p. 95
“During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple. I would construct a theory and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. Then it would be discarded at once and another theory evolved. This was the only possible way for me to work out the problem. … 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.”
— Thomas Edison
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More on this quote: On his years of research in developing the electric light bulb, as quoted in "Talks with Edison" by George Parsons Lathrop in Harper's magazine, Vol. 80 (February 1890), p. 425.
• Through all the years of experimenting and research, I never once made a discovery. I start where the last man left off. … All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention pure and simple.
• As quoted in ''Makers of the Modern World : The Lives of Ninety-two Writers, Artists, Scientists, Statesmen, Inventors, Philosophers, Composers, and Other Creators who Formed the Pattern of Our Century (1955) by Louis Untermeyer, p. 227
“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.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: Quoted by Theodore Dreiser in A Photographic Talk with Edison, Success magazine (February 1898)
“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.”
— Thomas Edison
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More on this quote: This has been reprinted many times with slight variations on the wording; it is part of a much larger quote directly from Edison published in 1903:
Nineteen hundred and three will bring great advances in surgery, in the study of bacteria, in the knowledge of the cause and prevention of disease. Medicine is played out. Every new discovery of bacteria shows us all the more convincingly that we have been wrong and that the million tons of stuff we have taken was all useless.
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.
They may even discover the germ of old age. I don't predict it, but it might be by the sacrifice of animal life human life could be prolonged.
Surgery, diet, antiseptics — these three are the vital things of the future in preserving the health of humanity. There were never so many able, active minds at work on the problems of diseases as now, and all their discoveries are tending to the simple truth — that you can't improve on nature.
• As quoted in "Wizard Edison" in The Newark Advocate (2 January 1903), p. 1 according to research by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson at snopes.com
“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.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: Quoted in 'Edison Fears Hidden Perils of the X-Rays', New York World (3 Aug 1903), 1
“Hell! There ain't no rules around here! We are tryin' to accomplish somep'n!”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: Response received (after Edison spat on the floor and before he walked off) when M. A. Rosanoff joined the West Orange, New Jersey team in 1903 and humbly asked: “Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe.” M. A. Rosanoff’s quote appeared in Harper’s Monthly, September 1932, p. 24.
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
— Thomas Edison
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More on this quote: Spoken statement (c. 1903); published in Harper's Monthly (September 1932).
• Variants:
• None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. '''What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
• Statement in a press conference (1929), as quoted in Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel & Charles Lindbergh (1987) by James D. Newton, p. 24.
• Variant forms without early citation: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."
"Genius: one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
“Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: As quoted in Thomas Alva Edison : Sixty Years of an Inventor's Life (1908) by Francis Arthur Jones, p. 14
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“Some day some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing up sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire. I'll do the trick myself if someone doesn't get at it. . . . Sunshine is spread out thin and so is electricity. Perhaps they are the same, but we will take that up later. . . . This scheme of combustion to get power makes me sick to think of — it is so wasteful. It is just the old, foolish Prometheus idea, and the father of Prometheus was a baboon. When we learn how to store electricity, we will cease being apes ourselves; until then we are tailless orang-outangs. You see, we should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy. Do we use them? Oh, no; we burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property. There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. Electricity ought to be as cheap as oxygen, for it can not be destroyed.”
— Thomas Edison
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More on this quote: As quoted in The Fra: A Journal of Affirmation vol. 5 no. 1, April 1910, by Elbert Hubbard, pp. 6-7
• We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. … I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
• In conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone (1931); as quoted in Uncommon Friends : Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel & Charles Lindbergh (1987) by James Newton, p. 31
“If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good, also. The difference between the bond and the bill is the bond lets money brokers collect twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20%, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way. … It is absurd to say our country can issue million in bonds and not million in currency. Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers and the other helps the people.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: Commenting on Henry Ford's currency plan in ”Ford sees wealth in Muscle Shoals”, New York Times (6 December 1921), p. 6
“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.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: "Do We Live Again?" an interview with Edison, as quoted in Mr. Edison's New Argument from Design" in The Illustrated London News'' (3 May 1924)
“I believe in the existence of a Supreme Intelligence pervading the Universe.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: As quoted in Thomas A. Edison, Benefactor of Mankind : The Romantic Life Story of the World's Greatest Inventor (1931) by Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ch. 25 : Edison's Views on Life — His Philosophy and Religion, p. 293
“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.”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: As quoted in Thomas A. Edison, Benefactor of Mankind : The Romantic Life Story of the World's Greatest Inventor (1931) by Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ch. 25 : Edison's Views on Life — His Philosophy and Religion, p. 295
“It is very beautiful over there!”
— Thomas Edison
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Quote source: These have sometimes been reported as his last words, but were actually spoken several days before his death, as he awoke from a nap, gazing upwards, as reported by his physician Dr. Hubert S. Howe, in Thomas A. Edison, Benefactor of Mankind : The Romantic Life Story of the World's Greatest Inventor (1931) by Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ch. 25 : Edison's Views on Life — His Philosophy and Religion, p. 295
“We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#17
Quote source: As quoted in Golden Book (April 1931), according to Stevenson's Book of Quotations (Cassell 3rd edition 1938) by Burton Egbert Stevenson.
“There is a great directing head of people and things — a Supreme Being who looks after the destinies of the world. I am convinced that the body is made up of entities that are intelligent and are directed by this Higher Power. When one cuts his finger, I believe it is the intelligence of these entities which heals the wound. When one is sick, it is the intelligence of these entities which brings convalescence. You know that there are living cells in the body so tiny that the microscope cannot find them at all. The entities that give life and soul to the human body are finer still and lie infinitely beyond the reach of our finest scientific instruments. When these entities leave the body, the body is like a ship without a rudder — deserted, motionless and dead.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#18
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#18
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#18
Quote source: As quoted in The Romance and Drama of the Rubber Industry (1936) by Harvey Samuel Firestone
“Restlessness is discontent — and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man — and I will show you a failure.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#19
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Edison, Thomas Alva (2021, August 5) Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#19
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#19
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#19
Quote source: Date unknown The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948), p. 110
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“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva (2021, August 5) Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#21
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#21
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in An Enemy Called Average (1990) by John L. Mason, p. 55
“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#22
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in Motivating Humans : Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs (1992) by Martin E. Ford, p. 17
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#23
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Edison, Thomas Alva (2021, August 5) Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#23
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#23
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#23
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in Behavior-Based Robotics (1998) by Ronald C. Arkin. p. 8
“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!”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva (2021, August 5) Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#24
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#24
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#24
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in Tesla : The Modern Sorcerer (1999) by Daniel Blair Stewart, p. 411
“I find out what the world needs. Then, I go ahead and invent it.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#25
Use APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the sciences.
Edison, Thomas Alva (2021, August 5) Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#25
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#25
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#25
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in American Greats (1999) Edited by Robert A. Wilson and Stanley Marcus, p. 70
“Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#26
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#26
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in Artifacts : An Archaeologist's Year in Silicon Valley (2001) by Christine Finn. p. 90
“I never did a day's work in my life, it was all fun.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#27
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Edison, Thomas Alva (2021, August 5) Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#27
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#27
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#27
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in Edison & Ford Quote Book (2003) edited by Edison & Ford Winter Estates
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
— Thomas Edison
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Edison, Thomas Alva (2021, August 5) Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#28
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#28
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#28
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in Edison & Ford Quote Book (2003) edited by Edison & Ford Winter Estates
“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.”
— Thomas Edison
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Use APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the sciences.
Edison, Thomas Alva (2021, August 5) Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#29
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#29
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html#29
Quote source: Date unknown As quoted in Jesus : Myth Or Reality? (2006) by Ian Curtis, p. 289
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Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” QuotesCosmos.com, edited by QuotesCosmos, 5 August 2021, https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html
MLA Citation: Use MLA (Modern Language Association) style for the humanities, especially language and literature.
Edison, Thomas Alva. “Thomas Edison Quotes: 1–30 of 47 Quotes.” Last modified August 5, 2021. https://www.quotescosmos.com/people/Thomas-Edison-quotes.html