John D. Rockefeller Quotes

“Giving is the secret to a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a person has to give of encouragement, sympathy, and understanding.”

“The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.”

“Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”

“If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.”

“I'm glad I wrote the book to show what I found out about the [ Standard Oil Company]. I'm glad many people read my book and found out the truth.”

“A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.”

“I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.”

“Probably the greatest single obstacle to the progress and happiness of the American people lies in the willingness of so many men to invest their time and money in multiplying competitive industries instead of opening up new fields, and putting their money into lines of industry and development that are needed.”

“I have made many millions but they have brought me no happiness.”

“A friendship built on business can be glorious, while a business built on friendship can be murder.”

“I never said that I wanted to be the only company, is it my fault that I ran my company well? Wouldn't you want the best for your company? Also consider that I started of small.”

“Do not many of us who fail to achieve big things. . .fail because we lack concentration--the art of concentrating the mind on the thing to be done at the proper time and to the exclusion of everything else?”

“Our cup will truly run over only after we have sealed the character cracks.”

“I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.”

“Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege.”

“You know that great prejudice exists against all successful business enterprise - the more successful, the greater the prejudice.”

“The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit... a reputation, character.”

“When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognised. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.”

“I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”

“Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed”

“Believing that fundamental conditions of the country are sound ... my son and I have for some days been purchasing sound common stocks”

“The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?”

“If my name were John D Smith IV I wouldn't have been elected to anything.”

“Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one's aim.”

“Get rich by taking something common and making it uncommon.”