“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Edison liked the quote and posted it around his factory.
Misattributed

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 "There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking." by Thomas Edison?
Thomas Edison photo
Thomas Edison 57
American inventor and businessman 1847–1931

Related quotes

Joshua Reynolds photo

“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”

Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) English painter, specialising in portraits

Quoted in Time magazine December 8, 1930
Other

Abraham Joshua Heschel photo

“The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5<!-- Existence and expediency, p. 85 -->
Context: Man is naturally self-centered and he is inclined to regard expediency as the supreme standard for what is right and wrong. However, we must not convert an inclination into an axiom that just as man's perceptions cannot operate outside time and space, so his motivations cannot operate outside expediency; that man can never transcend his own self. The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
James Baldwin photo
Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Essays, On Authorship and Style
Context: The law of simplicity and naïveté applies to all fine art, for it is compatible with what is most sublime.
True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself; that is, it consists in his correctly distinguishing between what is necessary and what is superfluous. On the other hand, one should never sacrifice clearness, to say nothing of grammar, for the sake of being brief. To impoverish the expression of a thought, or to obscure or spoil the meaning of a period for the sake of using fewer words shows a lamentable want of judgment.

Jim Carrey photo

“People would be tunneling under the street to avoid you. They'd go "Oh, man — is that happy guy still out there?”

Jim Carrey (1962) Canadian-American actor, comedian, and producer

Jim Carrey's Unnatural Act (1991)
Context: Imagine if you could actually be that happy? That would be powerful, man. People would be tunneling under the street to avoid you. They'd go "Oh, man — is that happy guy still out there?

Terence V. Powderly photo
Victor Hugo photo
Ulysses S. Grant photo

“Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately you occasionally find men disgrace labor.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

Speech at Midland International Arbitration Union, Birmingham, United Kingdom (1877).
1870s

Joseph Conrad photo

Related topics