John D. Rockefeller Quotes

“The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.”

“Singleness of purpose is essential for success in life.”

“Never was I power thirsty, or trying to control everyone. I believed in educating everyone, so they could all get to the position I was at.”

“The day of combination is here to stay. Individualism has gone, never to return.”

“Save when you can and not when you have to.”

“I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money's sake.”

“Often-times the most difficult competition comes, not from the strong, the intelligent, the conservative competitor, but from the man who is holding on by the eyelids and is ignorant of his costs, and anyway he's got to keep running or bust!”

“Oh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life.”

“I had to work my way up to be where I am now. All these companies could have done the same.”

“A man has no right to occupy another man’s time unnecessarily”

“There is no feeling in this world to be compared with self-reliance--do not sacrifice that to anything else.”

“The major fortunes in America have been made in land.”

“I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.”

“How much money does it take to make a man happy? Just one more dollar.”

“Be sure that you are not deceiving yourself at any time about actual conditions.”

“It has always been my rule in business to make everything count.”

“Never lose interest in life and the world. Never allow yourself to become annoyed.”

“The success of each is dependent upon the success of the other.”

“I have long been profoundly convinced that in the very nature of things, employers and employees are partners, not enemies; that their interests are common not opposed; that in the long run the success of each is dependent upon the success of the other.”

“Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”

“The task is simple. We will organize children and teach them in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.”

“The person with big talk and big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts. I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.”

“Taxation has its limitations as a method of achieving better economic distribution since for this purpose it is essentially remedial. We must also take a positive approach by finding new ways to spread ownership of future capital growth more broadly in our society.”

“I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers”

“My mother was given to a typical question: "We have always done this. Why should we do anything else?" But my wife's typical question was "We have always done this. Why don't we do it another way or, better still, why not do something else?"”