Henry Ford

I don’t read history. That’s in the past. I’m thinking of the future.

Efficient industry is the sole key to prosperity.

The Bible does not need advertising by me, but I wish more people could be persuaded to read it. Perhaps if they had been, we should not have this war on our hands. For greed and idleness brought it on.

Instinct is probably the essence of past experience and knowledge stored up for later use. There are many, you know, who think that this life journey through the world is not the first one we have made. Haven’t you ever come across children who knew things that it was impossible for them to have learned? Have you ever gone to a place for the first time and felt sure that you had been there before? That’s one of the reasons I do not travel much.

The most dangerous notion a young man can acquire is that there is no more room for originality. There is no large room for anything else.

An imitation may be quite successful in its own way, but imitation can never be Success. Success is a first-hand creation.

The consumer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.

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

[To his ex-entertainment lawyer Eric Eisner who resigned from the presidency of The David Geffen Company in 1991 just as a deal was about to be made with some Japanese] Keep your stock. [Eric sold it.]

The main job of the entrepreneur is to define the mission, find and inspire the team, and lead.

Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No.1.

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.

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

The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.

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.

The tooth fairy teaches children that they can sell body parts for money.

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.

You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.

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

[On his first job in the mailroom of William Morris a casting agency] It was the first time in the my life that I thought ‘I can do that.’

Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers.