Henry Ford

Our modern industrialism, changed to motives of public service, will provide means to remove every injustice that gives soil for prejudice.

Man minus the Machine is a slave; Man plus the Machine is a freeman.

We do not hire a man’s history, we hire the man.

The Model T blazed the way for the motor industry and started the movement for good roads everywhere. It is still the pioneer car in many parts of the world which are just beginning to be motorized.

We are entering an era when we shall create resources which shall be so constantly renewed that the only loss will be not to use them. There will be such a plenteous supply of heat, light and power, that it will be a sin not to use all we want. This era is coming now. And it is coming by way of Water.

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

The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself.

Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.

I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.

I suspect that many corporations have begun to understand that they have an important role to play in the lives of their communities, and that allocating funds to support local groups helps them discharge that function and also burnish their image.

There are people who are really good managers, people who can manage a big organization, and then there are people who are very analytic or focused on strategy. Those two types don’t usually tend to be in the same person. I would put myself much more in the latter camp.

The Golden Rule finds no limit of application in business.

Anyone who criticises me for talking about fair trade is a few pebbles short of a beach. Because everyone should care about it, just like everyone should care about the environment, because we all live here.

There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.

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.

We, we – as I say, we go in and shake up other industries and I think, you know, we do it differently and I think that industries are not quite the same as a result of Virgin attacking the market.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it.

Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.

I built a great company, one of the – some of the most iconic assets in the world, $10 billion of net worth, more than $10 billion of net worth, and frankly, I had a great time doing it.