(source)

Thomas Edison (11 Feb 1847 - 18 Oct 1931) American inventor who was known internationally as “the Wizard of Menlo Park,” for the huge number of innovations coming from there, the world's first industrial research laboratory. Short biography of Thomas Edison >>

Thomas Edison - “Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.”

Illustrated Quote - Large (800 x 600 px)

Click here or image for medium 500 x 350px version

(source)

“Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration. [At another time Edison defined genius thus:] Two per cent. is genius, and ninety-eight per cent. is hard work.”

— Thomas Edison

Ladies Home Journal (Apr 1898)

More Thomas Edison quotes on science >>

Thomas Edison
colorization © todayinsci.com (Terms of Use) (source)

Please respect the colorization artist’s wishes and do not copy this image for ONLINE use anywhere else.

Thank you.

For offline use, click Terms of Use tab on top menu.

Context of Thomas Edison’s quote “Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.”

The Ladies Home Journal in Apr 1898 profiled Thomas Edison with “A Group of Stories of the Great Inventor and ‘Wizard of Menlo Park,’ as Told by His Intimate Friends.” The article stated that the stories “so far as is known, are now printed for the first time.” It gave the two versions, shown above, of Edison's definition of genius. Another version also quoted as Edison's motto came in the Scientific American (27 Dec 1902):

“Genius is 2 percent inspiration and 98 percent perspiration.”

The magazine described this as “the incisive, epigrammatic answer [Edison] once gave to a man who thought that a genius only worked when the spirit moved him. Yet it must not be supposed that Edison is deficient in imagination. Every great inventor must have something of the poet in him; for without a most lively fancy, he could never see the possibilities of his own creation.”

In Simmonds’ 1934 biography1, the same 2 to 98 ratio was again given, quoting Edison's meeting with reporters in 1914, on his 77th birthday. Yet, in a 1910 biography gave the now most-quoted form2, namely:

“Genius is 1 per cent. inspiration and 99 per cent. perspiration.”

It is accompanied there with another another variant:

“Stuff! I tell you genius is hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and common sense,”

An expanded variation, also giving the 1 to 99 ratio, was presented by an Edison engineer, Samuel Insull, in a 1919 speech, who said he had asked Edison about the meaning of genius, and received this reply:

“Well, about 99 percent of it is a knowledge of the thing that will not work. The other 1 percent may be genius, but the only way I know to accomplish anything is everlastingly to to keep working with patient observation.”3

However, as with many familiar aphorisms, the idea may have evolved from an earlier expression. Kate Sanborn, in her Memories and Anecdotes (1915) wrote: “In my special class at home… One morning my theme was ‘Genius and Talent.’ I said Genius was something beyond—outside of—ourselves, which achieved great results with small exertion. … Talent must work hard and constantly for development. I said: ‘Genius is inspiration; Talent is perspiration.’ I had never heard that definition and thought it was mine. Of late it has been widely quoted, but with no acknowledgment, so I still think it is mine. Are there any other claimants—and prior to 1880?” Indeed, her earlier claim was recorded in the Detroit Journal, as cited in the Philadelphia newspaper The Times on 23 Dec 1892 (p.4).

(click for more about this quote and a larger picture • 500px • 800px)

(source)

(click for more about this quote and a larger picture • 500px • 800px)

(source)

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)

Quotations by: • Albert Einstein • Isaac Newton • Lord Kelvin • Charles Darwin • Srinivasa Ramanujan • Carl Sagan • Florence Nightingale • Thomas Edison • Aristotle • Marie Curie • Benjamin Franklin • Winston Churchill • Galileo Galilei • Sigmund Freud • Robert Bunsen • Louis Pasteur • Theodore Roosevelt • Abraham Lincoln • Ronald Reagan • Leonardo DaVinci • Michio Kaku • Karl Popper • Johann Goethe • Robert Oppenheimer • Charles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about: • Atomic  Bomb • Biology • Chemistry • Deforestation • Engineering • Anatomy • Astronomy • Bacteria • Biochemistry • Botany • Conservation • Dinosaur • Environment • Fractal • Genetics • Geology • History of Science • Invention • Jupiter • Knowledge • Love • Mathematics • Measurement • Medicine • Natural Resource • Organic Chemistry • Physics • Physician • Quantum Theory • Research • Science and Art • Teacher • Technology • Universe • Volcano • Virus • Wind Power • Women Scientists • X-Rays • Youth • Zoology  ... (more topics)