John D. Rockefeller famous quotes

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Inspirational #Strength #Success

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Inspirational #Motivational #Opportunity

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

#Inspirational #Money #Business

I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Want #Thinker #Workers

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Failure #Successful #Men

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Inspirational #Believe #Opportunity

Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Ears #Mouths

Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Inspirational #Business #Responsibility

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Inspirational #Business #Coffee

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Lessons #Study #New Thought

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Inspirational #Success #Leadership

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

#Men #Law #Earning

The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Running #Blood #Romance

God gave me my money.
-- John D. Rockefeller

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

#Business #Oil #Secret

The common denominator for success is work.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Motivational #Common

Own nothing, control everything.
-- John D. Rockefeller

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Leadership #Average #People

Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Thinking #Giving #Charity

The success of each is dependent upon the success of the other.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Winning

Save when you can and not when you have to.
-- John D. Rockefeller

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

#Success #Responsibility #Character

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Money #Believe #Men

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

#Life #Success #Business

I have ways of making money that you know nothing of.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Money #Way #Making Money

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

#Motivational #Change #Success

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Goal #Wealth #Rich

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?
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Art #Mind #Exclusion

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

#Success #Business #Ambition

Singleness of purpose is essential for success in life.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Life Lesson #Essentials #Purpose

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

#Attitude #Ambition #Goal

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

#Evil #Charity #Causes

The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Men #He Man

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

#Happiness #Encouragement #Giving

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Thinking #Opportunity #Giving

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Religious #Believe #Giving

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

#Believe #Aquariums #Essentials

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Life #Happiness #Thinking

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

#Christian #World #Fellowship

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Money #Business #Men

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Motivational #Independent #Charity

It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Happiness #Laughter #Men

Competition is a sin.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Competition #Sin

Don't blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Responsibility #Marketing #Bucks

A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Inspirational #Friendship #Success

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Drinking #Believe #Wine

The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Success #Secret #Common

The major fortunes in America have been made in land.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Land #America #Made

Believing that fundamental conditions of the country are sound and there is nothing in the business situation to warrant the destruction of values that has taken place on the exchanges during the past week, my son and I have for some days been purchasing sound common stocks. We are continuing and will continue our purchases in substantial amounts at levels which we believe represent sound investment values.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Country #Business #Believe

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

#Work #Fall #Civilization

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

#Struggle #Blessed #Men

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Business #Moving #Energy

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

#Business #Responsibility #People

To think! All that power and he wasn't even rich!
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Power #Thinking #Rich

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Holiday #Play #Long

I have made many millions but they have brought me no happiness.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Made

Homeopathy is a progressive and aggressive step in medicine.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Medicine #Steps #Progressive

Saddam's existing biological and chemical weapons capabilities pose a very real threat to America, now. Saddam has used chemical weapons before, both against Iraq's enemies and against his own people. He is working to develop delivery systems like missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles that could bring these deadly weapons against U.S. forces and U.S. facilities in the Middle East.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Real #Wmd #Iraq

The day of combination is here to stay. Individualism has gone, never to return.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Gone #Return #Individualism

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

#Inspirational #Men #Doe

What constitutes a good manager in this field? He must be knowledgeable in the art with which he is concerned, an impresario, labor negotiator, diplomat, educator, publicity and public relations expert, politician, skilled businessman, a social sophisticate, a servant of the community, a tireless leader - becomingly humble before authority - a teacher, a tyrant, and a continuing student of the arts.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Teacher #Art #Humble

Believing that fundamental conditions of the country are sound ... my son and I have for some days been purchasing sound common stocks
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Country #Believe #Son

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Growth #Purpose #Taxation

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Commitment #Mean #Successful

Be sure that you are not deceiving yourself at any time about actual conditions.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Reality #Deceiving

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Religious #Giving #Charity

I believe the power to make money is a gift of God.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Believe #Making Money #Economics

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Christian #School #Sunday

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?"
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Mother #Wife #Way

After it is all over, the religion of man is his most important possession.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Men #Important #Possession

Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Giving #Investing #Way

I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Men #Enthusiasm #Hiring

I was born into it and there was nothing I could do about it. It was there, like air or food, or any other element. The only question with wealth is what you do with it.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Air #Elements #Wealth

The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Wealth

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

#Life #Believe #Pursuit Of Happiness

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Able #Firsts #Salary

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Ambition #Ideas #Law

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

#Success #Inspiration #Focus

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Cheer #Growing Up #Sacrifice

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Inspiration #Fighting #Giving

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Men #Oil #Goes On

Long ago I lost the joy in living. The only joy I have is in my giving.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Long #Giving #Joy

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

#Sacrifice #Self #Feelings

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Men #Thinking #Giving

I was trained from the beginning to work, to save, and to give.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Giving #Philanthropy

A friendship built on business can be glorious, while a business built on friendship can be murder.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Murder #Glorious

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.
-- John D. Rockefeller

#Christian #Use #Common