Henry Ford

What I greatly hope for these children everywhere, is a new attitude toward life–free from the gullibility which thinks we can get something for nothing; free from the greed which thinks any permanent good can come of overreaching others; and, above all, expectant of change, so that when life gives them a jolt they will be fully prepared to push on eagerly along new lines.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

I’d like to devote about three years to the elimination of the cow. There’s not reason in the world why the chemist can’t discover the cow’s secret of converting vegetation into dairy products. And there’s less reason why the chemist can’t do a better job of it after he learns how.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

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

See what a 25-cent raise will do to us, said Mr. Ford. So they figured the daily and monthly cost of a 25-cent increase. Put on another quarter and see what that will cost, he said. And so they went on, 25 cents a step. Finally the wage of $2.34 stood at $4.75–more than 100 percent increase. One of the associates–a good financial head–remarked rather sarcastically that if they were going to be fools, why not be first-class fools and make it $5. All right, said Mr. Ford, let’s make it $5.

I hope that while so many people are out smelling the flowers, someone is taking the time to plant some.

When women come up to me like, ‘I am a freaking senator,’ or, ‘I’m a doctor,’ it’s like, ‘Damn, y’all like me? I look up to y’all!’

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

Every loss of life is terrible.

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

[on Diana’s Death] Disbelief, refused to accept it.

One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died.

If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.

Feelings are often born from the matrix of conditions beyond your control. Let them just pass through, like a cloud in the sky.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.

If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.