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 customer is always right.
I want to pay my men so well that they will be able to afford my cars.
I invented nothing new. I simply assembled into a car the discoveries of other men behind whom were centuries of work.
The man who is too busy to read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
The only thing that is constant is change.
There is no point in being a genius if you can't get your ideas across.
Don't find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
There is no use in trying to do a thing unless you have the will to do it.
Grumbling and complaining are the deadliest of all habits. A man can get into.
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.
I do not believe we can have any freedom in the big sense unless we have economic freedom.
Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.
The object of work is not to make money but to make the man.
Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by simply pushing a button is a fool.
There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I look at a man, I do not care what his origin is, but I do care what his destination is.
I believe that the average man does not want to be a boss, he wants to be a worker.
The world is full of people who are waiting for someone to come along and inspire them to be what they always wanted to be.
There is no such thing as a self-made man. We are made up of thousands of others.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Contemporaries of Henry Ford
Other Engineerings born within 50 years of Henry Ford (1863–1947).