Henry Ford

When we are through, we shall have reproduced American life as lived; and that, I think is the best way of preserving at least a part of our history and tradition.

You’ve got to teach youngsters the difference between right and wrong, but you shouldn’t try to poke it down their throats. Let them ask the questions and then give them the answers.

I can visualize the time when almost every family will have a small plane in their back yard.

Should a man quit at 40 he is failure-Retire at that age is sorry failure.

Competition is the lifeblood of industry.

Trouble with the world today is people don’t go to children enough. I don’t like old people. I stay away from them.

We wish all users of Ford cars to know what they are entitled to.

I used to be able to read memo’s upside down… It was like going to the college of the entertainment business.

We were all young and we were all inventing our careers. I was very close to Jackson, just as I’d been very close to Laura Nyro. With each person I had a unique relationship.

If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don’t let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.

[In 1990 on the president of MCA calling and saying ‘We’re going to make you the biggest offer this company has ever made, and I’m going to send it to you by messenger right now.’] It’s 1990. Send me a fax.

Chris and I came from nothing. We’re selfmade. We started with nothing, so we have nothing to lose. And we have everything to gain.

If I had asked them what they had wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

Too many would-be executives are slaves of routine.

There is a time and place for all things to be successful. There is fate and destiny and opportunity, and you need all three things in line at the same time.

The epiphany for me at William Morris was realizing, ‘They bullshit on the phone! I can bullshit on the phone too!’

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

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.

You can’t tell me you can make any system or country work with low wages and high prices, and high wages with high prices don’t mean anything when the prices eat up the wages and don’t leave anything over.

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

I think a simple rule of business is, if you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.