Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.

The saying is a sardonic comment on how rare Edison believed genuine, disciplined reasoning to be. It divides society into three groups: a small minority who actively engage in careful thought; a larger group who mistake opinions, habits, or received ideas for thinking; and a majority who avoid the discomfort of analysis altogether. Read this way, the line functions less as a statistical claim than as a provocation—an inventor’s impatience with complacency and mental laziness. Its enduring appeal comes from its blunt, memorable structure and its fit with a popular image of Edison as a champion of practical intelligence and relentless problem-solving.