Quotations by Henry Ford
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Henry Ford, Founder of the Ford Motor Company
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 - April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. He was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents. As owner of the Ford Company he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism", that is, the mass production of large numbers of inexpensive automobiles using the assembly line, coupled with high wages for his workers. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation but arranged for his family to control the company permanently. (Source: Wikipedia)
Quotations
A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.
A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.
An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
Any colour - so long as it's black.
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.
Asking "who ought to be the boss" is like asking "who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?" Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.
Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.
Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.
Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.
Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice.
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.
Don't find fault, find a remedy.
Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.
Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.
Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don't need it: if you are sick you should not take it.
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
History is more or less bunk.
I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.
I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn't need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.
I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.
If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.
It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.
It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.
It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.
Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all.
Money is like an arm or leg - use it or lose it.
My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.
Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
Speculation is only a word covering the making of money out of the manipulation of prices, instead of supplying goods and services.
The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.
The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.
The question "Who ought to be boss?" is like as "Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?" Obviously, the man who can sing tenor.
There are two fools in this world. One is the millionaire who thinks that by hoarding money he can somehow accumulate real power, and the other is the penniless reformer who thinks that if only he can take the money from one class and give it to another, all the world's ills will be cured.
There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.
We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today.
Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.
Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right.
Women do not win formula one races, because they simply are not strong enough to resist the G-forces. In the boardroom, it is different. I believe women are better able to marshal their thoughts than men and because they are less egotistical they make fewer assumptions.
You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.
