Henry Ford

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.

This is the only reason Greenfield Village exists-to give us a sense of unity with our people through the generations, and to convey the inspiration of American genius to our young men. As a nation we have not depended so much on rare or occasional genius as on the general resourcefulness of our people. That is our true genius, and I am hoping that Greenfield Village will serve that.

I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26. I got the idea from a book by Orlando Smith. Until I discovered this theory I was unsettled and dissatisfied-without a compass, so to speak. When I discovered reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan. I realized that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. There was time enough to plan and to create. I wouldn’t give five cents for seeing all the world, because I feel there is nothing in the five continents and on the five seas that I have not somehow seen. Somewhere is a master mind sending brain wave messages to us. There is a Great Spirit. I never did anything by my own volition. I was pushed by invisible forces within and without me. We inherit a native knowledge from a previous existence. Gospel of reincarnation is essence of all knowledge. I do not know where we come from or go to but we accumulate experience. Someday it will be possible to measure the soul. We all retain memories of past lives.

Be ready to revise any system, scrap any method, abandon any theory, if the success of the job requires it.

The way out of the depression is to start spending and doing things.

Many people are busy trying to find better ways of doing things that should not have to be done at all. There is no progress in merely finding a better way to do a useless thing.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.

What gives life its value you can find – and lose. But never posess. This holds good above all for “the Truth about Life.

Pies, para que los quiero si tengo alas para volar. (“Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly.”)

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like nobody is watching.

That dog don’t hunt.

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.

People who are capable of and fit for freedom liberate themselves from physical thralldom by substituting mind for muscle.

No one can be helped unless he can be put in the way of helping himself.

Those unproductive hands … may consume so great a share … that all the frugality and good conduct of individuals may not be able to compensate … this violent and forced encroachment.