Edison All progress, all success, springs from thinking.
Genius is two per cent inspiration and ninety-eight per cent perspiration.
By 12 he was reading, among other bug-crushing books, Hume's History of England and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire . Perhaps to a greater degree than anyone else, he exploited the total freedom the America of his day gave to a man of talents. Never in his long and fruitful life of invention was he frustrated by rules and restrictions and inhibitions. One day a foolish conductor grabbed Edison by the ears to lift him into the train, and Edison felt something crack in his head. He became partially deaf.