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)
It is not necessary for a man to be a genius to be successful. He simply has to be a man of ordinary common sense, and to know what he wants to do, and to stick to it.
I want to pay the highest wages in the industry, and I want to sell my cars at the lowest possible price.
Machinery is the new Messiah.
I believe in the power of the individual. I believe in the power of the common man.
The most important thing in the world is to know how to get along with people.
There is no use in trying to do a thing unless you are sure you can do it. If you are not sure, you have to try and try again, and then you will be sure.
We will pay $5 a day for an eight-hour day.
The only true security in life comes from knowing that every single day you are improving yourself in some way.
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.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
I want to make an automobile that anybody can afford to buy, and operate, and that will be so simple that anybody can run it.
The average man won't really do a day's work unless he is forced to.
The biggest mistake an executive can make is to be afraid of making a mistake.
It is not necessary for a man to be a genius to be successful. He only needs to be persistent and to have a clear idea of what he wants to do.
There are no big problems, there are only a lot of little problems.
It is not necessary for a man to be a genius to be a success. The average man, if he has a purpose in life and sticks to it, will go farther than a genius who has no purpose.
There is no disgrace in honest error; there is disgrace in not correcting it.
I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.
The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops a clock to save time.
We are not afraid of the future, for we are the future.
Contemporaries of Henry Ford
Other Engineerings born within 50 years of Henry Ford (1863–1947).