82 Henry Ford Quotes

Henry Ford quotes

1. History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today.

2. An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

3. Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.

4. I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilise the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realised that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men's minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.

5. The average man won't really do a day's work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work to do if people would do it.

6. You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.

7. A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

8. When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat.

9. 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.

10. A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.

11. A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.

12. A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.

13. As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

14. 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.

15. Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

16. Before every minute of action, there should be an hour of thought.

17. Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

18. Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.

19. Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice.

20. Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

21. Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.

22. Don't find fault, find a remedy.

23. 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.

24. Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.

25. Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don't need it: if you are sick you should not take it.

26. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

27. I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. I don't like to read books; they muss up my mind.

31. If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.

32. 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.

33. If there is any one secret of success, ... it lies in the ability in the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own.

34. If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right. (See: Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.)

35. It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

36. It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.

37. It is well that the 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.

38. 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.

39. Many people miss opportunity because it came disguised in overalls.

40. Mark my words: A combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile. But it will come.

41. 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.

42. Money is like an arm or leg - use it or lose it.

43. My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.

44. Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

45. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.

46. 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.

47. Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

48. Speculation is only a word covering the making of money out of the manipulation of prices, instead of supplying goods and services.

49. 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.

50. The international financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the International Jew -- German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews. I believe that in all these countries except our own the Jewish financier is supreme... Here, the Jew is a threat.

51. 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.

52. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.

53. 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.

54. There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

55. 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.

56. Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

57. Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.

58. Under pressure, the mouth speaks when the brain is disengaged, and, sometimes unwittingly, the gearshift is in reverse when it should be in neutral.

59. Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.

60. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

61. Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. (See: If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.)

62. Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?

1. Whether you think you can or think you cant you are right.

2. Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right.

3. Those who stop marketing to save money are like those who stop a clock to save time.

4. A man's college and university degrees mean nothing to me until I see what he is able to do with them.

5. A customer votes everyday with his dollar. Our job is make sure he votes for us.

6. The time is coming when man will be able to determine the length of his lifespan by controlling his diet.

7. You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do. It's simple, fantasize, rehearse, then go out into the world and DO IT!

8. There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.

9. Without doubt, Thomas Edison is my greatest contemporary.

10. The time will come when man will know even what is going on in the other planets and perhaps be able to visit them.

11. One who fears failure limits his activities.

12. Don't expect people to respect you for what you are "planning" to do.

13. You can take my factories, burn up my buildings, but give me my people and I'll build the business right back again.

14. A low wage business is always insecure.

15. For most purposes, a man with a machine is better than a man without a machine.

16. A man who cannot think is not an educated man however many college degrees he may have acquired.

17. I wouldn't give five cents for all the art in the world.

18. Greatest thing we can produce is character. Everything else can be taken from us, but not our character.

19. Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligent.

20. Every man starts with all there is. Everything is here-the essence and substance of all there is.