Henry Ford

Quotes by Henry Ford

Founder of the Ford Motor Company
1863-1947

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

If you think you can do a thing
or think you can’t do a thing,
you’re right.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

When everything seems to be going against you,
remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it

An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

People can have the Model T in any colour – so long as it’s black.

History is more or less bunk.

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 made today.

I am looking for a lot of men
who have an infinite capacity
to not know what can’t be done.

There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.

All Fords are exactly alike, but no two men are just alike.
Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, never will be again.
A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth.
Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put it all in the same mold, but I say don’t let that spark be lost; it is your only real claim to importance.