Henry Ford
An American industrialist who founded the Ford Motor Company and developed the assembly line technique of mass production.
Most quoted
"I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one—and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces."
— from Statement to his engineers, often quoted as a personal philosophy, 1909
"Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward."
— from My Life and Work, 1922
"I do not believe in the theory that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. I believe that the rich are getting richer because they are working harder and the poor are getting poorer because they are not working hard enough."
— from Attributed
All quotes by Henry Ford (182)
The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
Money is like an arm or a leg—use it or lose it.
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
We are not afraid of the future and we shall not shirk our part in it.
History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's dam is the history we make today.
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.
The man who starts out with the idea of getting rich won't succeed; you must have a larger ambition.
There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to try.
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.
The object of an enterprise is to do the most good to the greatest number of people.
It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
I believe that the average man does not want to be a boss. He wants to be a worker and he wants to be paid well for his work.
We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through it.
The natural thing to do is to work—to recognize that prosperity and happiness can be obtained only through honest effort.
An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
The farther you look back, the farther you can look forward.
The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches, but to reveal to them their own.
It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
Contemporaries of Henry Ford
Other Engineerings born within 50 years of Henry Ford (1863–1947).