Henry Ford

Poetry without music may be beautiful, but music gives poetry wings and elevates it into song. That may be the reason for our love of song-it has wings and lifts us; with proper songs, it is a nourishing spiritual exercise.

No American ought to be compelled to strike for his rights. He ought to receive them naturally, easily, as a matter of course.

If governments would only understand that if people are left alone they’ll work out their own salvation.

I will build a motor car for the great multitude – constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. So low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one-and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.

The basis of peace should be a world federation.

What America needs most is aviation.

Investors are visionaries in some respects – they look beyond the present.

I really don’t retain information – by the time I arrive wherever I’m going, I already forget what it is that I wanted to say.

There are good examples of companies – Coca-Cola is one – that invested before there was a huge market in countries, and I think that ended up playing out to their benefit for decades to come.

Test ideas in the marketplace. You learn from hearing a range of perspectives. Consultation helps engender the support decisions need to be successfully implemented.

I avoid clients for whom advertising is only a marginal factor in their marketing mix. They have an awkward tendency to raid their advertising appropriations whenever they need cash for other purposes.

I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It’s done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.

It strikes me as bad manners for a magazine to accept one of my advertisements and then attack it editorially – like inviting a man to dinner then spitting in his eye.

One client didn’t want to go out so had us build him a nightclub in his house.

Your business, and your brand, must first let people know what you care about, and that you care about them.

Hire character. Train skill.

The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts.

The best of merchandise will go back to the shelf unless handled by a conscientious, tactful salesman.

Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.

The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.

When bankers get into business they usually destroy it.