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1
each rational being can make every impediment in his way a proper matter for himself to act upon, and can use it for his guiding purpose, whatever it may be
Marcus AureliusdisputedThe Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (trans. George W. Chrystal)·1902

Attribution contested

This is the passage behind the slogan the obstacle is the way, which Marcus never wrote. That phrase is the title of a 2014 book, and the sentence usually quoted with it -- the impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way -- is Gregory Hays's 2002 translation, still in copyright. The thought is genuinely his; the memorable English is not.

2
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won't work.
Thomas A. EdisondisputedEdison: His Life and Inventions, by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin·1910

Attribution contested

The famous form -- I have not failed, I have just found ten thousand ways that won't work -- has no source in Edison. The earliest record of the remark is this one, in the authorised 1910 biography, and it is a colleague's recollection of a conversation, not Edison writing. Note what changes in the retelling: several thousand becomes ten thousand, and a man cheerfully counting negative results becomes a man defending himself against failure.