Henry Ford

A low wage business is always insecure.

Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die.

The great need of the world has always been for leaders. With more leaders we could have more industry. More industry, more employment and comfort for all.

A peaceful nation is one that has the means to make war and restrains.

Nothing can be made except by makers, nothing can be managed except by managers. Money cannot make anything and money cannot manage anything.

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.

There’s a part of me I can’t get back. A little girl grew up too fast. All it took was once, I’ll never be the same.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native criminal class except Congress.

Whenever you think it’s the end, it’s probably just the start of something else.

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.

The satisfaction that arises from honest accomplishment is of far more value in the promotion of human happiness than the thrill that comes with the realization of materialistic aspirations.

Don’t worry about things you cannot alter.

The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.

I ask you to go back and read them over again, and this time answer “Self-acceptance was the foundation of the happiest time in your life and it was the engine that powered the train.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

I don’t like when there’s too much conversation because I’m shy and it makes me uncomfortable.

It is true that I am often startled and even angered and repulsed by the strange directions and provocative content of new forms that seem to pop up every few months.

My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.