What does this famous quote mean?

Question

Thomas Edison's "Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent persperation"?
Points to whoever gives me the best answer. :)

Answer 1

Edison invented the light bulb. It was a bit of inspirational genius that took many tries before he got it right. The idea was good but putting in all the effort to make the idea work was how the inspiration became genius.

Answer 2

Getting an idea is the easy part. We all come up with brilliant ideas when all we have to do is say, "Wouldn't it be great if only ..." The hard part is making it happen. "Can't we all just get along." is easy to say. Creating the method is a LOT more difficult.

You may have heard the story of how long it took Edison to perfect the light bulb. He tried dozens of materials for a filament and none ot them lasted enough to be practical. At some point he realized that oxygen was causing the element to burn much to quickly. He didn't need combustion, he needed illumination. He figured out a way to remove the air from the bulb. (not an easy task) After that his invention workded fine.

Answer 3

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. It was such a great idea it is still used in cartoons to indicate a person has had a bright idea. But he experimented with thousands of materials before finding a filament (carbon) that worked well and that was not the end of his experiments. He epitomized his own saying by working very hard to bring his ingenious inspiration to fruition.

Answer 4

This quote means that the actual idea comprises only a small part of something which, usually in hindsight, proves to be genius. By working hard on a particular goal, more things come to light and greater inventions are made serendipidiously through the work process rather than simply conjured up in moments of repose.

Answer 5

It is basically a pointer to live life . Nothing really useful ever gets done unless real hard sweaty hours of work is put in . This work is the perspiration . But to start you off on your way and to give you that little push , you need the inspiration . Thus, a little inspiration and lots of perspiration will make you a " genius " .

Answer 6

I think if you learn about some of the people who are considered geniuses in the history of mankind (and womankind), you will find that most of them are prolific creators. They worked long hours and wrote or produced so many works that each one of them would be worthy of an entire college course to learn about them. For example, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and other musical geniuses. Beethoven's style is unique - he composed long symphonies with heavenly orchestrations, but his manuscripts look like he slaved over them with dozens of inkwells, crossing out and fixes. How about Leonardo da Vinci or Albert Einstein? Thomas Edison himself would be a genius worth studying - and you would again find that most of what goes for genius is really setting goals and working hard to accomplish them.

Answer 7

The quote means great ideas can be inspired from the littlest things but making them reality takes effort and hard work.

Answer 8

what this means is that there is effort involved.

so many people are inspired with some brilliant idea or another - but withouth the legwork who will know about it. >????

right no-one hence the perspiration - he's a freakin' genius. or she sorry ladies.

i really have to work on that.

Answer 9

it means that you get to become a genius through hard work not just inheriting it from genetics, but there is still that one percent people need to be inspired to do that hard work.

Answer 10

You have to work to become a genius.

I don't know. That's what I assume it means. To be honest, this is the first time I have heard the quote.