Henry Ford

There should be rivalry between men and between business.

The remains of the old must be decently laid away; the path of the new prepared. That is the difference between Revolution and Progress.

We now know that anything which is economically right is also morally right. There can be no conflict between good economics and good morals.

We live in an era of tremendous facts. And the facts are facts. They are also unpleasant facts, which does not decrease their factual percentage one bit. Our job is to understand them, to recognize their presence, to learn if we can what they signify and not to fall into the error of minimizing facts because they have a bitter flavor.

I don’t know anybody so old he can’t do something useful. Just give them a chance and see.

We ought to know more about the families who founded this nation, and how they lived. One way to do this is to reconstruct as nearly as possible the conditions under which they lived.

[In 1990 on the president of MCA calling and saying ‘We’re going to make you the biggest offer this company has ever made, and I’m going to send it to you by messenger right now.’] It’s 1990. Send me a fax.

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.

Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect.

If you need a machine and don’t buy it, then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don’t have it.

I own buildings. I’m a builder; I know how to build. Nobody can build like I can build. Nobody. And the builders in New York will tell you that. I build the best product. And my name helps a lot.

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 never aspired to be a public figure. I have always been interested primarily in real business and the development of business strategies.

If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.

When most people ask about a business growing, what they really mean is growing revenue, not just growing the number of people using a service. Traditional businesses would view people using your service that you don’t make money from as a cost.

Investors have very short memories.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your own family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out — either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don’t think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.

My mother taught me to love my work. I learned everything about business from her.

Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn’t smooth. You’ll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don’t believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don’t give up.

A big business never becomes big by being a narrow society looking after only the interests of its organization and stockholders.

I think everybody thought I was crazy that I quit my job and started a management company in which I was managing one client – Laura Nyro.