If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.

The line expresses a characteristically “Edisonian” faith in latent human capacity and in the gap between potential and performance. It suggests that most people habitually operate below their true abilities—through caution, inertia, fear of failure, or lack of sustained effort—and that fully applying one’s talents would produce results that feel astonishing even to the person achieving them. The emphasis is not on innate genius but on realized capability: what matters is converting capacity into action. In quotation culture the saying functions as a motivational maxim aligned with Edison’s public image as an inventor who prized persistence, experimentation, and practical work over mere inspiration.