Henry Ford

The philosophy of life indicates that our principal business on this planet is the gaining of experience.

If we could get all religions together on a common purpose-the elimination of jealousies and the things that make men covet another’s belongings, we would be a long way toward the goal of outmoding war, depression and poverty.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

For a long time now, I have believed that industry and agriculture are natural partners and that they should begin to recognize and practice their partnership. Each of them is suffering from ailments which the other can cure. Agriculture needs a wider andsteadier market; industrial workers need more steadier jobs. Can each be made to supply what the other needs? I think so. The link between is Chemistry. In the vicinity of Dearborn we are farming twenty thousand acres for everything from sunflowers to soy beans. We pass the crops through our laboratory to learn how they may be used in the manufacture of motor cars and, thus provide an industrial market for the farmers’ products.

I believe in 100% Theory and 100% Practice. Theory without practical application is futile.

Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.

The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life.

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

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.

Mass production is craftsmanship with the drudgery taken out of it.

My advice to budding property developers: do it on the cheap and you’ll get a cheap price. Don’t avoid putting in skirting just because it’s hidden by a sofa.

I feel that the best companies are started not because the founder wanted a company but because the founder wanted to change the world… If you decide you want to found a company, you maybe start to develop your first idea. And hire lots of workers.

I did not feel ‘evil’ when I wrote advertisements for Puerto Rico. They helped attract industry and tourists to a country which had been living on the edge of starvation for 400 years.

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

I started the site when I was 19. I didn’t know much about business back then.

Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine.

Many people – and I think I am one of them – are more productive when they’ve had a little to drink. I find if I drink two or three brandies, I’m far better able to write.

I will build a motor car for the great multitude – constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. So low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one-and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.

Anything that is not right, whether it temporarily favors the employees or the employers, cannot last-because it is not right.

Anyone who criticises me for talking about fair trade is a few pebbles short of a beach. Because everyone should care about it, just like everyone should care about the environment, because we all live here.