David Ogilvy

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

The secret of long life is double careers. One to about age sixty, then another for the next thirty years.

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

A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.

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

The advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything.

Without a customer, you don’t have a business, all you have is a hobby.

I just think people have a lot of fiction. But, you know, I mean, the real story of Facebook is just that we’ve worked so hard for all this time. I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? I mean, we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.

It took only 10 minutes to do Chelsea deal with Roman Abramovich but I had to Google him first … I wasn’t sure if Jeremy Beadle was going to jump out.

As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for.

[‘Why don’t you manage me’ – Laura Nyro] Eventually I thought do I really believe that she could be one of the biggest stars in the world? Should I give up my career at this point in my life, where I’m doing so well, and put all my marbles in Laura’s [Nyro] basket? And I woke up one morning and I thought if you really believe it – go for it.

Money will ruin the life of any man who treats it like anything but a tool with which to work.

When bankers get into business they usually destroy it.

Anything that is not right, whether it temporarily favors the employees or the employers, cannot last-because it is not right.

The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress.

Leverage: don’t make deals without it!

There has never been a time when a career in the Penney Company was not a challenge that brought out the best in a man.

I never went to business school. I was just bumbling through a lot of my life. I was like the guy behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.