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The Only Time I Really Become Discouraged Is When I Think Of All The Things I Would Like To Do And The Little Time I Have In Which To Do Them.
-Thomas A. Edison
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The Only Time I

Thomas A. Edison
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The Only Time I Really Become Discouraged Is When I Think Of All The Things I Would Like To Do And The Little Time I Have In Which To Do Them.

Understanding the Quote: "the only time i really become discouraged is when i think of..."

This quote by Thomas A. Edison reflects deeply on the theme of motivational. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Motivational, Thinking, Littles, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Thomas A. Edison interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Thomas A. Edison

Thomas A. Edison is celebrated for insightful thoughts on motivational and thinking. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Motivational
Thinking
Littles
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Mr. Edison Worked Endlessly On A Problem, Using The Method Of Elimination. If A Person Asked Him If He Were Discouraged Because So Many Attempts Proved Unavailing, He Would Say, "no, I Am Not Discouraged, Because Every Wrong Attempt Discarded Is Another Step Forward.".
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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!
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The Beauty Of A Great Idea Lies In The Art Of Using It.
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The Value Of An Idea Lies In The Using Of It.
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Books Will Soon Be Obsolete In The Schools... Our School System Will Be Completely Changed In The Next Ten Years.
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The Three Things That Are Most Essential To Achievement Are Common Sense, Hard Work And Stick-to-it-iv-ness.
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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.
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That Is To Say, Under The Old Way Any Time We Wish To Add To The National Wealth We Are Compelled To Add To The National Debt. Now, That Is What Henry Ford Wants To Prevent. He Thinks It Is Stupid, And So Do I, That For The Loan Of $30,000,000 Of Their Own Money The People Of The United States Should Be Compelled To Pay $66,000,000 - That Is What It Amounts To, With Interest.
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Large Portions Of Life's Disappointments Are Individuals Who Did Not Understand That They Were So Near Achievement When They Surrendered.
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Consider Data Without Prejudice.
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I Do Not Believe In The God Of The Theologians; But That There Is A Supreme Intelligence I Do Not Doubt.
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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.
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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.
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Tomorrow Is My Exam But I Don’t Care Because A Single Sheet Of Paper Can’t Decide My Future
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I Remember That I Was Never Able To Get Along At School. I Was At The Foot Of The Class.
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It Is Remarkable To What Lengths People Will Go To Avoid Thought.
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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 Per Cent Perspiration.
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Show Me A Thoroughly Satisfied Man - And I Will Show You A Failure.
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From His Neck Down A Man Is Worth A Couple Of Dollars A Day, From His Neck Up He Is Worth Anything That His Brain Can Produce.
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I Was Always Afraid Of Things That Worked The First Time. Long Experience Proved That There Were Great Drawbacks Found Generally Before They Could Be Got Commercial; But Here Was Something There Was No Doubt Of.
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The Roots Of Tobacco Plants Must Go Clear Through To Hell. Satan's Principal Agent Dyspepsia Must Have Charge Of This Branch Of The Vegetable Kingdom.
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Everything Comes To Those Who Hustle While They Wait.
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Nature Made Us - Nature Did It All - Not The Gods Of The Religions.
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Nature Is Truly Wonderful. Only Man Is Truly Foul.
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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.
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I Never Failed. It Just Didn't Work 10,000 Times.
I Owe My Success To The Fact That I Never Had A Clock In My Workroom. Seventy-five Of Us Worked Twenty Hours Every Day And Slept Only Four Hours - And Thrived On It.
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To My Mind The Old Masters Are Not Art; Their Value Is In Their Scarcity.
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A Diamond Is A Piece Of Coal That Stuck To The Job
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The Value Of A Good Idea Is In Using It.
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To Do Much Clear Thinking A Person Must Arrange For Regular Periods Of Solitude When They Can Concentrate And Indulge The Imagination Without Distraction.
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I Never Quit Until I Get What I Want.
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The Brain Can Be Developed Just The Same As The Muscles Can Be Developed, If On Will Only Take The Pains To Train The Mind To Think.
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We Haven't Failed. We Now Know A Thousand Things That Won't Work, So We Are Much Closer To Finding What Will.
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There Will One Day Spring From The Brain Of Science A Machine Or Force So Fearful In Its Potentialities, So Absolutely Terrifying, That Even Man, The Fighter, Who Will Dare Torture And Death In Order To Inflict Torture And Death, Will Be Appalled, And So Abandon War Forever.
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I've Realized That Most Of My Best Ideas Have Followed A Good Night's Sleep.
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If I Could Solve All The Problems Myself, I Would.
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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. Because Such Thinking Is Often Difficult, There Seems To Be No Limit To Which Some People Will Go To Avoid The Effort And Labor That Is Associated With It.
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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.
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Our Greatest Weakness Lies In Giving Up.
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I Have A Peculiar Theory About Radium, And I Believe It Is The Correct One. I Believe That There Is Some Mysterious Ray Pervading The Universe That Is Fluorescing To It. In Other Words, That All Its Energy Is Not Self-constructed But That There Is A Mysterious Something In The Atmosphere That Scientists Have Not Found That Is Drawing Out Those Infinitesimal Atoms And Distributing Them Forcefully And Indestructibly.
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The Most Necessary Task Of Civilization Is To Teach People How To Think. It Should Be The Primary Purpose Of Our Public Schools. The Mind Of A Child Is Naturally Active, It Develops Through Exercise. Give A Child Plenty Of Exercise, For Body And Brain. The Trouble With Our Way Of Educating Is That It Does Not Give Elasticity To The Mind. It Casts The Brain Into A Mold. It Insists That The Child Must Accept. It Does Not Encourage Original Thought Or Reasoning, And It Lays More Stress On Memory Than Observation.
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I Have Been At Work For Some Time Building An Apparatus To See If It Is Possible For Personalities Which Have Left This Earth To Communicate With Us.
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My Main Purpose In Life Is To Make Enough Money To Create Ever More Inventions…. The Dove Is My Emblem…. I Want To Save And Advance Human Life, Not Destroy It…. I Am Proud Of The Fact That I Have Never Invented Weapons To Kill….
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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.
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Not Only Will Atomic Power Be Released, But Someday We Will Harness The Rise And Fall Of The Tides And Imprison The Rays Of The Sun.
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We Will Make Electricity So Cheap That Only The Rich Will Burn Candles.
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The Thing I Lose Patience With The Most Is The Clock. Its Hands Move Too Fast
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Genius? Nothing! Sticking To It Is The Genius! Any Other Bright-minded Fellow Can Accomplish Just As Much If He Will Stick Like Hell And Remember Nothing That's Any Good Works By Itself. You've Got To Make The Damn Thing Work!...i Failed My Way To Success.
Genius
Way
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Smoking
Curls
Mouths
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It Is Very Different To Make A Practical System And To Introduce It. A Few Experiments In The Laboratory Would Prove The Practicability Of System Long Before It Could Be Brought Into General Use. You Can Take A Pipe And Put A Little Coal In It, Close It Up, Heat It And Light The Gas That Comes Out Of The Stem, But That Is Not Introducing Gas Lighting. I'll Bet That If It Were Discovered To-morrow In New York That Gas Could Be Made Out Of Coal It Would Be At Least Five Years Before The System Would Be In General Use.
New York
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Light
I Get My Ideas From Listening From Within.
Ideas
Listening
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Motivational
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."
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Men
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Motivational
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Dies
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Genius Is 99% Perspiration And 1% Inspiration.
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We Have Merely Scratched The Surface Of The Store Of Knowledge Which Will Come To Us. I Believe That We Are Now, A-tremble On The Verge Of Vast Discoveries - Discoveries So Wondrously Important They Will Upset The Present Trend Of Human Thought And Start It Along Completely New Lines .
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Be Courageous! Have Faith! Go Forward.
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Lying
Fishing
Stupidity
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.
Simple
Discovery
Years
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Technology
Dove
Emblems
People Are Not Remembered By How Few Times They Fail, But By How Often They Succeed. Every Wrong Step Is Another Step Forward
People
Succeed
Steps
I Never Perfected An Invention That I Did Not Think About In Terms Of The Service It Might Give Others... I Find Out What The World Needs, Then I Proceed To Invent.
Inspirational
Motivational
Creativity
I Didn’t Fail Ten Thousand Times. I Successfully Eliminated, Ten Thousand Times, Materials And Combinations Which Wouldn’t Work.
Failing
Combination
Thousand
My Success Is Due More To My Ability To Work Continuously On One Thing Without Stopping Than To Any Other Single Quality.
Quality
Stopping
Ability
There Seems To Be No Limit To Which Some Men Will Go To Avoid The Labor Of Thinking. Thinking Is Hard Work.
Hard Work
Men
Thinking
Never Go To Sleep Without A Request To Your Subconscious.
Sleep
Mind
Subconscious
I Have Not Failed. I've Just Found 10,000 Ways That Won't Work.
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Funny
Motivational
Success Depends On How Many Experiments You Can Fit Into 24 Hours
Fit
Hours
Experiments
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Wise
Reading
Successful
I Never Knew I Had An Inventive Talent Until Phrenology Told Me So. I Was A Stranger To Myself Until Then!
Phrenology
Talent
Stranger
Absorb Ideas From Every Source.
Ideas
Source
Any Large Extension Of The Government Into Business Affairs - No Matter What The Pretense And No Matter How The The Extension Is Labeled - Will Be Bound To Promote Waste And Put A Curb On Our Prosperity And Progress.
Government
Progress
Matter
I Find My Greatest Pleasure, And So My Reward, In The Work That Precedes What The World Calls Success.
Funny
Success
Motivation
Each Time You Fail, You Have Eliminated Another Wrong Option.
Failure
Failing
Maturity Is Often More Absurd Than Youth And Very Frequently Is Most Unjust To Youth.
Time
Maturity
Insightful
The Chief Function Of The Body Is To Carry The Brain Around.
Brain
Mind
Body
I Find Out What The World Needs. Then I Go Ahead And Try To Invent It
Inspirational
Science
Trying
The Reason A Lot Of People Do Not Recognize Opportunity Is Because It Usually Goes Around Wearing Overalls Looking Like Hard Work.
Success
Hard Work
Opportunity
There Is No Substitute For Hard Work.
Motivational
Perseverance
Morning
I Cannot Believe In The Immortality Of The Soul. No, All This Talk Of An Existence For Us, As Individuals, Beyond The Grave Is Wrong. It Is Born Of Our Tenacity Of Life - Our Desire To Go On Living - Our Dread Of Coming To An End.
Atheist
Believe
Soul
I Am More Of A Sponge Than An Inventor. I Absorb Ideas From Every Source. I Take Half-matured Schemes For Mechanical Development And Make Them Practical. I Am A Sort Of A Middleman Between The Long-haired And Impractical Inventor And The Hard-headed Business Man Who Measures All Things In Terms Of Dollars And Cents. My Principal Business Is Giving Commercial Value To The Brilliant But Misdirected Ideas Of Others.
Men
Ideas
Long
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 Meetand That Is The First Requisite Of Business.
Business
Loss
Government
Never Be Discouraged, Because Every Wrong Turn Attempt, When Left Behind You, Is Another Step Forward Taking You Closer To Your Goals.
Powerful
Goal
Behind You
I Didn't Fail 1000 Times. The Light Bulb Was An Invention With 1000 Steps.
Light
Steps
Self Discipline
Education Isn't Play--and It Can't Be Made To Look Like Play. It Is Hard, Hard Work. But It Can Be Made Interesting Work.
Education
Hard Work
Play
Because Ideas Have To Be Original Only With Regard To Their Adaptation To The Problem At Hand, I Am Always Extremely Interested In How Others Have Used Used Them.
Motivational
Hands
Ideas
The First Requisite Of Success Is The Ability To Apply Your Physical And Mental Energies To One Problem Without Growing Weary.
Success
Focus
Energy
It Is Astonishing What An Effort It Seems To Be For Many People To Put Their Brains Definitely And Systematically To Work.
Effectiveness
People
Effort
Of All My Inventions, I Liked The Phonograph Best
Great Inventions
Invention
Phonograph
The Successful Person Makes A Habit Of Doing What The Failing Person Doesn't Like To Do.
Success
Commitment
Action
Genius Is 1 Percent Inspiration, 99 Percent Perspiration.
Inspirational
Educational
Genius
Until Man Duplicates A Blade Of Grass, Nature Can Laugh At His So Called Scientific Knowledge.
Motivational
Nature
Laughter
I Never Pick Up An Item Without Thinking Of How I Might Improve It.
Technology
Thinking
Might
Genius? Nothing! Sticking To It Is The Genius! ... I've Failed My Way To Success.
Genius
Way
My Way
I Start Where The Last Man Left Off. What The Mind Of Man Can Conceive And Believe, The Mind Of A Man Can Achieve.
Believe
Men
Mind
If We Did All The Things We Are Capable Of Doing, We Would Literally Astound Ourselves.
Inspirational
Motivational
Positive
I Did Not Fail Two Thousand Times. I Merely Found Two Thousand Ways Not To Make A Lightbulb.
Two
Way
Failing
Seeming To Do Is Not Doing.
Seeming
The Trouble With Most People Is That They Quit Before They Start.
Thinking
People
Quitting
It Is Very Beautiful Over There. (last Words)
Beautiful
Lasts
Last Words
I Am Afraid Of Radium And Polonium ... I Don't Want To Monkey With Them.
Science
Want
Monkeys
Continued Innovation Is The Best Way To Beat The Competition.
Competition
Innovation
Way
Restlessness Is Discontent And Discontent Is The First Necessity Of Progress. Show Me A Thoroughly Satisfied Man And I Will Show You A Failure.
Inspirational
Motivational
Failure
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.
Thinking
People
Willful Ignorance
After We Had Conducted Thousands Of Experiments On A Certain Project Without Solving The Problem, One Of My Associates, After We Had Conducted The Crowning Experiment And It Had Proved A Failure, Expressed Discouragement And Disgust Over Our Having Failed To Find Out Anything. I Cheerily Assured Him That We Had Learned Something. For We Had Learned For A Certainty That The Thing Couldnt Be Done That Way, And That We Would Have To Try Some Other Way.
Trying
Done
Way
When You Become Quiet, It Just Dawns On You
Dawn
Quiet
Time Is Really The Only Capital That Any Human Being Has, And The Only Thing He Can't Afford To Lose.
Time
Humans
Human Beings
Religion Is All Bunk.
Atheist
Religion
Atheism
The Only Time I Really Become Discouraged Is When I Think Of All The Things I Would Like To Do And The Little Time I Have In Which To Do Them.
Motivational
Thinking
Littles
Genius Is Not Inspired. Inspiration Is Perspiration.
Inspiration
Hard Work
Science
His Genius He Was Quite Content In One Brief Sentence To Define; Of Inspiration One Percent, Of Perspiration, Ninety Nine.
Positive
Inspiration
Ninety Nine
I Know Of Over 3,000 Ways [that] A Light Bulb Does Not Work.
Light
Doe
Way
When You Have Exhausted All Possibilities, Remember This - You Haven't.
Inspirational
Karma
Running
I Have Not Failed. I've Just Found 10,000 Foundations And Individual Donors Whose Priorities Don't Align With My Organization's.
Organization
Priorities
Foundation
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.
Success
Jobs
Failure
The Doctor Of The Future Will No Longer Treat The Human Frame With Drugs, But Rather Will Cure And Prevent Disease With Nutrition.
Motivational
Fitness
Health
Failure Is Really A Matter Of Conceit. People Don't Work Hard Because, In Their Conceit, They Imagine They'll Succeed Without Ever Making An Effort. Most People Believe That They'll Wake Up Some Day And Find Themselves Rich. Actually, They've Got It Half Right, Because Eventually They Do Wake Up.
Believe
Hard Work
People
They Say President Wilson Has Blundered. Perhaps He Has, But I Notice He Usually Blunders Forward.
Failure
President
Wilson
No, I Haven't Failed Thousands Of Times. On The Contrary, I Have Successfully Eliminated Thousands Of Ideas That Do Not Work!
Inspirational
Ideas
Contrary
I Never Failed Once. It Just Happened To Be A 2000-step Process.
Inspirational
Patience
Perseverance
Genius Defined: Of Inspiration 1% Percent, Of Perspiration, 99%.
Inspiration
Genius
Percent
The Secret Of Success Is Focus Of Purpose.
Focus
Secret
Purpose
First Be Sure A Thing Is Wanted Or Needed, Then Go Ahead.
Firsts
Needed
Wanted
I Told [kruesi] I Was Going To Record Talking, And Then Have The Machine Talk Back. He Thought It Absurd. However, It Was Finished, The Foil Was Put On; I Then Shouted "mary Had A Little Lamb," Etc. I Adjusted The Reproducer, And The Machine Reproduced It Perfectly. On First Words Spoken On A Phonograph.
Science
Talking
Machines
Accomplishing Something Provides The Only Real Satisfaction In Life.
Real
Satisfaction In Life
Satisfaction
If The 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 That The Bond Lets The Money Broker Collect Twice The Amount Of The Bond And An Additional 20%. Whereas The Currency, The Honest Sort Provided By The Constitution Pays Nobody But Those Who Contribute In Some Useful Way. It Is Absurd To Say Our Country Can Issue Bonds And Cannot Issue Currency. Both Are Promises To Pay, But One Fattens The Usurer And The Other Helps The People.
Country
Money
Differences
The Doctor Of The Future Will Give No Medication, But Will Interest His Patients In The Care Of The Human Frame, Diet And In The Cause And Prevention Of Disease. ~
Life
Motivational
Fitness
An Average American Loves His Family. If He Has Any Love Left Over For Some Other Person, He Generally Selects Mark Twain.
Average
Mark
Persons
I Would Construct And Work Along Various Lines Until I Found Them Untenable. When One Theory Was Discarded, I Developed Another At Once. I Realized Very Early That This Was The Only Possible Way For Me To Work Out All The Problems.
Adventure
Work Out
Lines
You Can't Realize Your Dreams Unless You Have One To Begin With.
Dream
Goal
Realizing
When I Have Fully Decided That A Result Is Worth Getting I Go Ahead Of It And Make Trial After Trial Until It Comes.
Inspirational
Perseverance
Life Lesson
Invention Is 10% Inspiration And 90% Perspiration.
Inspiration
Design
Invention
For Faith, As Well Intentioned As It May Be, Must Be Built On Facts, Not Fiction - Faith In Fiction Is A Damnable False Hope.
Religious
Fiction
May
What A Man's Mind Can Create, Man's Character Can Control.
Character
Angel
Men
An Idea Is Something That Won't Work Unless You Do.
Ideas
I Am A Vegetarian As Well As A Passionate Anti-alcoholic, Because I Can Thus Make Better Use Of My Brain.
Animal
Brain
Passionate
Be Brave As Your Fathers Before You. Have Faith And Go Forward.
Father
Persistence
Brave
We Don't Know A Millionth Of One Percent About Anything.
Drinking
Ignorance
Knowledge
Because I Readily Absorb Ideas From Every Source - Frequently Starting Where The Last Person Left Off - I Never Pick Up An Item Without Thinking Of How I Might Improve It.
Motivational
Thinking
Ideas
There Is No Subsitute For Hard Work.
Hard Work
Hard
Fools Call Wise Men Fools. A Wise Man Never Calls Any Man A Fool.
Inspirational
Wise
Men
To Invent, You Need A Good Imagination And A Pile Of Junk.
Inspirational
Science
Imagination Creativity
There Is A Better Way For Everything. Find It.
Inspirational
Way
Better Ways
Inspiration Can Be Found In A Pile Of Junk. Sometimes, You Can Put It Together With A Good Imagination And Invent Something.
Inspiration
Imagination
Together
I Never Did A Day's Work In My Life, It Was All Fun.
Inspirational
Life
Fun
The Inventor Can't Do It All, You've Got To Change People. We Have An Enormous Capacity To Invent Super-machinery. But Our Desire To Install The Device Is Weak. Human Inertia Is The Problem, Not Invention. Something In Man Makes Him Resist Change.
Men
People
Desire
A Lawsuit Is The Suicide Of Time.
Suicide
Lawsuit
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