Henry Ford

One of the greatest discoveries a person makes, one of their great surprises, is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn’t do.

Every one knows that insufficient rest and gorging are not good for anyone, either physically or mentally.

Anyone who does anything useful will not go unpaid.

No one will ever get anywhere in this world unless he becomes a teacher, one who can show others how to do things.

When I went to our American history books to learn how our forefathers harrowed the land, I discovered that the historians knew nothing about harrows. Yet our country has depended more on harrows than on guns or speeches. I thought that a history which excluded harrows, and all the rest of daily life, was bunk. And I think so yet.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

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

Insight emerges out of silence.

I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on the hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream… I know how the nuts taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting.

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

In the dime stores and bus stations, people talk of situations, read books, repeat quotations, draw conclusions on the wall.

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

Think about all of the times, situations, and circumstances where you have gotten caught up in making your self right rather than happy… The harder you fight to win, the bigger you lose.

Every situation needs a hero. Step up and be that for your child.

Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

I don’t substitute anybody else’s judgment for my own.

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

I’m doing it because I choose it. And if it’s not working, I can make a change.

Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.