Henry Ford

If you find out what men want and give them that, you are pleasing them. If you find out what is good for them and give them that, you are performing a service. That’s what we are trying to do.

This is the only reason Greenfield Village exists-to give us a sense of unity with our people through the generations, and to convey the inspiration of American genius to our young men. As a nation we have not depended so much on rare or occasional genius as on the general resourcefulness of our people. That is our true genius, and I am hoping that Greenfield Village will serve that.

Work mixed with management becomes not only easier but more profitable. The time is past when anyone can boast about ‘hard work’ without having a corresponding result to show for it.

When bankers get into business they usually destroy it.

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

I have been at it ten years. I collect them so that they will not be lost to America. We have no Egyptian mummies here, nor any relics of the Battle of Waterloo nor any curios from Pompeii. It is strictly American.

Nothing can be made except by makers, nothing can be managed except by managers. Money cannot make anything and money cannot manage anything.

There are very few men of genius in advertising agencies. But we need all we can find. Almost without exception they are disagreeable. Don’t destroy them. They lay golden eggs.

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.

After the situation with Kursk submarine, I started looking at Mr. Berezovsky in a completely different way. For me, it was a turning point in our relationship. I think that he took a completely dishonorable position.

Good copy can’t be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You’ve got to believe in the product.

Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.

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.

We started learning ourselves, understanding ourselves, reading, researching, going around the world and looking at what was defined as the very best.

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.

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.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

Competition whose motive is merely to compete, to drive some other fellow out, never carries very far.

If you find out what men want and give them that, you are pleasing them. If you find out what is good for them and give them that, you are performing a service. That’s what we are trying to do.

Can advertising foist an inferior product on the consumer? Bitter experience has taught me that it cannot. On those rare occasions when I have advertised products which consumer tests have found inferior to other products in the same field, the results have been disastrous.

A merchant who approaches business with the idea of serving the public well has nothing to fear from the competition.