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date: 03 October 2024

Thomas Alva Edison 1847–1931
American inventor 

  1. The roots of tobacco plants must go clear through to hell.
    in American Heritage 12 July 1885
  2. The horseless vehicle is the coming wonder.
    interview, in New York World 17 November 1895
  3. Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
    said 1903, in Harper's Monthly Magazine September 1932
  4. I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
    the commonly-quoted version of an incident recounted in F. L. Dyer and T. C. Martin Edison: His Life and Inventions (1910): ‘I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won't work’
  5. 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.
    attributed; T. D. MacGregor The Book of Thrift (1915)
  6. The value of an idea lies in the using of it.
    Elbert Hubbard Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great (1916)
  7. For most of my life I refused to work at any problem unless its solution seemed to be capable of being put to commercial use.
    interview, in New York Sun February 1917