You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them.

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Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.

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A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.

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One day every major city in America will have a telephone.

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When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

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First words on the first telephone - "Mr. Watson - come here - I want to see you.

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The achievement of one goal should be the starting point of another.

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I have travelled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all!

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Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.

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The inventor is a man who looks around upon the world and is not contented with things as they are. He wants to improve whatever he sees, he wants to benefit the world; he is haunted by an idea. The spirit of invention possesses him, seeking materialization.

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