Henry Ford

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

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.

The best way is always the simplest. The attics of the world are cluttered up with complicated failures.

Wars are necessary to teach us lessons we seem unable to learn any other way.

In the Ford Motor Company we emphasize service equally with sales.

There should be no unemployment. There is large percentage of labor now which cannot make a living because wages are not high enough. That is industry’s 2nd job. 1st job is to make good product. 2nd pay a good wage.

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.

What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.

I don’t know the exact details of his background but from what I have read Mr. Abramovich had a very humble start in life and has made his own luck.

Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

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

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

Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

Getting permanent value out of a job means purpose and fitting means to ends.

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

Some people have so much respect for their superiors they have none left for themselves.

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

I quickly figured out [that] the one ability I’d better have is to create relationships.

No unemployment insurance can be compared to an alliance between a man and a plot of land. With one foot in the land, human society is firmly balanced against most economic uncertainties. With a job to supply him with cash, and a plot of land to guarantee him support, the individual is doubly secure. Stocks may fail, but seedtime and harvest do not fail.

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

Nobody’s ever called me Sir Richard. Occasionally in America, I hear people saying Sir Richard and think there’s some Shakespearean play taking place. But nowhere else anyway.