Quote: Genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration (Edison 1901 May 6) (Plus earlier variants)

[Garson O'Toole]

One of Thomas Edison's most famous pronouncements was: Genius is 1 per
cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration. The Yale Book of
Quotations and the Quote Verifier have valuable entries on this topic.
The remark evolved over time and the earliest versions gave a split of
98 to 2 instead of 99 to 1. The main contribution of this post is a
May 6, 1901 citation that matches the most common modern variant, and
a May 21, 1898 statement that divides genius using the following
wording: "inspiration is 2 per cent and perspiration 98."

Cite: 1901 May 6, Idaho Daily Statesman [Idaho Statesman], Doing One's
Best, Page 4, Column 3, Boise, Idaho. (GenealogyBank)
[Begin excerpt]
Genius is another name for hard work, honest work. "Genius," says
Edison "is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration."
[End excerpt]

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

The rhetorical linkage between genius, inspiration, and perspiration
pre-dates the famous commentary by Edison. Below is an example in 1892
of a comment made in response to a national lecturer named Kate
Sanborn.

Wikipedia has an entry for Sanborn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Sanborn

Cite: 1892 December 4, Springfield Sunday Republican [Springfield
Republican], Men Women and Affairs, Page 4, Column 4, Springfield,
Massachusetts. (GenealogyBank)
[Begin excerpt]
Kate Sanborn is getting lots of credit for having said that "talent is
perspiration." That idea has been expressed very often; in fact, much
in the same terms. A common way of saying it is that "genius is
perspiration more than inspiration."
[End excerpt]

Here is another cite discussing the remarks of Sanborn. Her point
differed from Edison's later point but the vocabulary overlapped.

Cite: 1893 January 14, The Spectator, Woman's Domain: Notes, Page 9,
Column 3, Rockford, Illinois. (GenealogyBank)
[Begin excerpt]
Miss Kate Sanborn pithily observes that "Genius is inspiration, talent
is perspiration." meaning by this epigram that genius acts naturally
and without conscious effort, while that which is only talent has to
toil and struggle and perspire.
[End excerpt]

Sanborn also delivered a lecture in California that was reported in a
Riverside, California newspaper. The quotation from this lecture has a
different flavor.

Cite: 1893 April 21, Riverside Daily Press, Miss Sanborn's Lecture,
Page 4, Column 1, Riverside, California. (GenealogyBank)
[Begin excerpt]
Her subject was "What is Genius?" She quoted copiously from ancient
and modern writers, giving their definitions of the word genius, and
wittily added that "genius is inspiration, talent and perspiration."
[End excerpt]

Here is a key citation for Edison that is mentioned in The Quote
Verifier. This quote uses the phrase "hard work" instead of
"perspiration". Also, Edison suggests a 98 to 2 split.

Cite: 1898 April, The Ladies' Home Journal, The Anecdotal Side of
Edison, Subsection: His Estimate of Genius, Start Page 7, Quote Page
8, Column 2, Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia. (ProQuest
American Periodicals)
[Begin excerpt]
Once, when asked to give his definition of genius, Mr. Edison replied:
"Two per cent is genius and ninety-eight per cent is hard work." At
another time, when the argument that genius was inspiration was
brought before him, he said: "Bah! Genius is not inspired. Inspiration
is perspiration."
[End excerpt]

This citation in 1898 moves closer to the modern version of the
statement by using "perspiration" instead of "hard work". But the
split is still 98 to 2.

Cite: 1898 May 21, Savannah Tribune, Peace Has Its Victories: An
Interesting Address to High School Boys Delivered by Mr. J. K. Orr,
Page 4, Column 2, Savannah, Georgia. (GenealogyBank)
[Begin excerpt]
Even Mr. Edison is quoted as having said that genius may be divided
into two parts, of which inspiration is 2 per cent and perspiration
98.
[End excerpt]

Cite: 1898 June 19, The Helena Independent, Brevities, Page 2, Column
2, Helena, Montana. (GenealogyBank)
[Begin excerpt]
Speaking of the life and labors of Thomas A. Edison, a writer says
that two per cent of his great discoveries and inventions can be
credited to inspiration, while the other 98 per cent is due to
perspiration.
[End excerpt]

Cite: 1900 August 17, Dallas Morning News, Current Comment: Genius
Gone to Waste, [Acknowledgement to St. Paul Pioneer Press], Page 6,
Column 7, Dallas, Texas. (GenealogyBank)
[Begin excerpt]
If it be true that "genius is one-tenth inspiration and nine-tenths
perspiration," consider how much genius in these last ten days has
gone to waste.
[End excerpt]

By May 6, 1901 the modern version of the quotation credited to Edison
was published as mentioned at the beginning of this post.

Cite: 1902 December 27, Scientific American, Thomas Alva Edison, Page
463, Column 1, Munn & Co., New York. (ProQuest American Periodicals)
[Begin excerpt]
To those who believe that Edison's work is the product of an
inspiration given by nature to but few, the story of the manner in
which he achieves success will seem shockingly unromantic. In the
genius who works by inspiration Edison has no great faith. "Genius is
two per cent inspiration and ninety-eight per cent perspiration," is
the Incisive, epigrammatic answer he once gave to a man who thought
that a genius worked only when the spirit moved him.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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