“My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe it. What a soul may be is beyond my understanding.”

—  Thomas Edison

"Do We Live Again?" an interview with Edison, as quoted in Mr. Edison's New Argument from Design" in The Illustrated London News (3 May 1924).
1920s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do …" by Thomas Edison?
Thomas Edison photo
Thomas Edison 57
American inventor and businessman 1847–1931

Related quotes

Elizabeth von Arnim photo

“I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow.”

Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941) Australian writer

Source: The Solitary Summer

John Keats photo

“O for ten years, that I may overwhelm
Myself in poesy; so I may do the deed
That my own soul has to itself decreed.”

John Keats Sleep and Poetry

"Sleep and Poetry", st. 6
Poems (1817)

Rosie Malek-Yonan photo

“I may not have a country with boundaries, but my country is in me. My country is in my soul and in my heart. I am Assyria.”

Rosie Malek-Yonan (1965) Assyrian actress, author, director, public figure and human rights activist

As quoted in The Crimson Field.
The Crimson Field (2005)

Bobby Sands photo

“I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul.”

Bobby Sands (1954–1981) Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army

Diary entry http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/diary.html, (1 March 1981), the first day of his hunger strike, in Skylark Sing your Lonely Song : An Anthology of the Writings of Bobby Sands (1991).
Other writings

Saint Patrick photo

“I am imperfect in many things, nevertheless I want my brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my soul's desire.”

Saint Patrick (385–461) 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland

The Confession (c. 452?)

Leo Tolstoy photo

“Saying that what we call our “selves” consist only of our bodies and that reason, soul, and love arise only from the body, is like saying that what we call our body is equivalent to the food that feeds the body. It is true that my body is only made up of digested food and that my body would not exist without food, but my body is not the same as food. Food is what the body needs for life, but it is not the body itself. The same thing is true of my soul. It is true that without my body there would not be that which I call my soul, but my soul is not my body. The soul may need the body, but the body is not the soul.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Path of Life (1909), p. 12

Sallustius photo

“One may call the world a myth, in which bodies and things are visible, but souls and minds hidden.”

Sallustius Roman philosopher and writer

III. Concerning myths; that they are divine, and why.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
Context: One may call the world a myth, in which bodies and things are visible, but souls and minds hidden. Besides, to wish to teach the whole truth about the Gods to all produces contempt in the foolish, because they cannot understand, and lack of zeal in the good, whereas to conceal the truth by myths prevents the contempt of the foolish, and compels the good to practice philosophy.

Julian of Norwich photo

“Our Soul may never have rest in things that are beneath itself.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 67
Context: Our Soul may never have rest in things that are beneath itself. And when it cometh above all creatures into the Self, yet may it not abide in the beholding of its Self, but all the beholding is blissfully set in God that is the Maker dwelling therein. For in Man’s Soul is His very dwelling; and the highest light and the brightest shining of the City is the glorious love of our Lord, as to my sight.

Charles Bukowski photo

“Understand me. I’m not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in another dimension and I do not have time for things that have no soul.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Angela of Foligno photo

“No matter how far the understanding of the soul is able to stretch itself, that is nothing in comparison to what it experiences when it is lifted beyond itself and placed in the bosom of God. Then the soul understands, finds its delight, and rests in the divine goodness; it cannot bring back any report of this, because it is completely beyond what the intelligence can conceive, and beyond words; but in this state the soul swims.”

Angela of Foligno (1248–1309) Italian saint

Source: The Memorial and Instructions, p. 208

Related topics