John D. Rockefeller Quotations

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

Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.

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

I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own efforts.

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

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.

I had no ambition to make a fortune. Mere money-making has never been my goal, I had an ambition to build.

This Sunday School has been of help to me, greater perhaps than any other force in my Christian life, and I can ask no better things for you than that you, and all that shall come after you in this great band of workers for Christ, shall receive the same measure of blessedness which I have been permitted to have.

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

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.

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

I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living.

Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.

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

Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in.

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

I have ways of making money that you know nothing of.

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.

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

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

We can never learn too much of His will towards us, too much of His messages and His advice. The Bible is His word and its study gives at once the foundation for our faith and an inspiration to battle onward in the fight against the tempter.

There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; nothing that can satisfy but Christ.

Don't blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.

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.

After it is all over, the religion of man is his most important possession.

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

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

And we are never too old to study the Bible. Each time the lessons are studied comes some new meaning, some new thought which will make us better.

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

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

The most important thing for a young man is to establish credit - a reputation and character.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession a duty.

I was early taught to work as well as play. My life has been one long, happy holiday; Full of work and full of play- I dropped the worry on the way- And God was good to me everyday.

God gave me my money. I believe the power to make money is a gift from God . to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind. Having been endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience.

Never think you need to apologize for asking someone to give to a worthy cause, any more than as though you were giving him or her an opportunity to participate in a high-grade investment. The duty of giving is as much his or hers as is the duty of asking yours.

Character - not wealth, power, or position - is the supreme word.

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

I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.

Competition is a sin.

I believe it is a religious duty to get all the money you can, fairly and honestly; to keep all you can, and to give away all you can.

The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won't succeed, you must have a larger ambition.

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

Get rich by taking something common and making it uncommon.

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

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

Save when you can and not when you have to.

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

The common denominator for success is work.

Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed

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

Own nothing, control everything.

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

God gave me my money.

I have no use for men who fail. The cause of their failure is no business of mine, but I want successful men as my associates.

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?

The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money.

The best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities-a search for a cause, an attempt to cure evils at their source.

Singleness of purpose is essential for success in life.

Many of the deficiencies of our economic system could be alleviated if ways were found to broaden the ownership of the means of production... This has happened in some companies through ESOPs. Successful approaches of this sort would pay dividends in terms of employee commitment and morale. And they would not deprive anyone of his present holdings since they are based on future growth.

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.

It is very important to remember what other people tell you, not so much what you yourself already know.

I believe the power to make money is a gift from God...to be developed and used to the best of our ability for the good of mankind.

Money is a way of keeping COUNT on how well you're doing in business.

The American Beauty Rose can be produced in the splendor and fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only by sacrificing the early buds which grow up around it. This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working-out of a law of nature and a law of God.

I never placed my head upon the pillow at night without reminding myself that my success might only be temporary.

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?"

I should say in general the advantage of education is to better fit a man for life's work. I would advise young men to take a college course, as a rule, but think some are just as well off with a thorough business training.

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!

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

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

A man's wealth must be determined by the relation of his desires and expenditures to his income. If he feels rich on ten dollars, and has everything else he desires, he really is rich.

Let the good work go on. We must ever remember we are refining oil for the poor man and he must have it cheap and good.

The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my slave and not make myself a slave to money.

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

I cheat my boys every chance I get. I trade with the boys and skin 'em and I just beat 'em every time I can. I want to make 'em sharp.

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

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

The secret of success is to get up early, work late and strike oil.

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

I think it is a man's duty to make all the money he can, keep all that he can and give away all that he can.

I was trained from the beginning to work, to save. I have always regarded it a as a religious duty to get all I could honorably and to give all I could.

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.

The major fortunes in America have been made in land.

Long ago I lost the joy in living. The only joy I have is in my giving.

The person who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won't succeed; you must have a larger ambition. There is no mystery in business success. If you do each day's task successfully, and stay faithfully within these natural operations of commercial laws which I talk so much about, and keep your head clear, you will come out all right.

When work goes out of style we may expect to see civilization totter and fall.

When a man has accumulated a sum of money, accumulated it within the law, the Government has no right to share in its earnings.

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.

We are quite convinced that if he were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy.

I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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

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

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.

I believe the power to make money is a gift of God.

I shall use such influence as I have in emphasizing the basic truths common to all denominations, in lowering denominational barriers and in promoting effective cooperation among Christians of whatever creed.

To think! All that power and he wasn't even rich!