Henry Ford

What America needs most is aviation.

Whenever you get the idea that you are ‘fixed’ or that anything is ‘fixed’ for life, you’d better get ready for a sudden change.

I don’t like to read books. They muss up my mind.

Be ready to revise any system, scrap any method, abandon any theory, if the success of the job requires it.

People didn’t want war. We were forced in it. How fast we finish it depends on how free a hand our generals and admirals have. The less interference they get from the politicians the quicker they’ll end it.

No one can be helped unless he can be put in the way of helping himself.

It’s true we’ve got some fantastic clients. We’re very fortunate to be connected with the movers and shakers of all the global cities of the world. You can usually tell when we’ve got a client in here because their bodyguards are all over the place: two outside the front door, two in the lobby, one in the lift…

Asking me to come work here is the dumbest idea you ever had. It has been a waste of a year.

Depressions aren’t acts of God; like wars, they are the work of a small group of men who profit by them.

No business can succeed in any great degree without being properly organized.

Salesmanship is limitless. Our very living is selling. We are all salespeople.

No one loses anything by raising wages as soon as he is able. It has always paid us. Low wages are the most costly any employer can pay. It is like using low-grade material–the waste makes it very expensive in the end. There is no economy in cheap labor or cheap material. The hardest thing I ever had to do was to reduce wages. I think we were the last big company to come to it. Now I am mighty glad that wages are climbing again.

What America needs most is aviation.

What right have you, save service to the world, to think that other men’s labor should contribute to your gains?

I don’t hire a lot of number-crunchers, and I don’t trust fancy marketing surveys. I do my own surveys and draw my own conclusions.

Profits are not financial-they’re social. Everybody profits from industry. Politicians don’t understand profits because they can pay bills out of taxation.

It’s a new endeavour for me. I’ve never run a territory. I’ve never talked publicly to people. I’ve got to try it just to see whether I like it.

I have no Napoleonic dream. I’m just hard working and pragmatic.

Owning a great golf course gives you great power.

A world where men ran half our homes and women ran half our institutions would be just a much better world.

Success cannot come from standstill men. Methods change and men must change with them.