“Ninety-five percent of people who walk the earth are simply inert. One percent are saints, and one percent are assholes. The other three percent are people who do what they say they can do.”
The Dead Zone (1979)
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Stephen King733
American author 1947Related quotes
“One percent intention, ninety nine percent desire.”
Ron English (1959) American artist
Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)
“Ninety-five percent of all jobs suck. That’s why people get paid to do them.”
Source: Company (2006), p. 112
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
Spoken statement (c. 1903); published in Harper's Monthly (September 1932).
Variants:
None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Statement in a press conference (1929), as quoted in Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel & Charles Lindbergh (1987) by James D. Newton, p. 24.
Variant forms without early citation: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."
"Genius: one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
1900s
Variant: Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety nine perspiration.
Mark Clifton book They'd Rather Be Right
Source: They'd Rather Be Right (1954), p. 175.
“Ninety Percent of those who fail are not actually defeated they simply quit.”
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
"The American: His New Puritanism," http://books.google.com/books?id=tn9HAAAAYAAJ&q=%22If+there+is+one+mental+vice+indeed+which+sets+off+the+American+people+from+all+other+folks+who+walk+the+earth%22+%22it+is+that+of%22+%22that+every+human+act+must+be+either+right+or+wrong+and+that+ninety-nine+percent+of+them+are+wrong%22&pg=RA1-PA87#v=onepage The Smart Set (February 1914) <br class="br">1910s
“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
Lou Holtz (1937) American college football coach, professional football coach, television sports announcer
“Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.”
Rhonda Byrne book The Secret
Source: The Secret