Top 8 Quotes & Sayings by Howard Gossage

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American businessman Howard Gossage.

Last updated on April 22, 2025.

Howard Luck Gossage (1917–1969), frequently referred to as "The Socrates of San Francisco," was an advertising innovator and iconoclast during the "Mad Men" era. He is known for having said that, "The object of your advertising should not be to communicate with your consumers or your prospects at all but to terrorize your competition's copywriters."

American - Businessman | 1917 - 1969

Source: Wikipedia

I long for the day when advertising will become a business for a grown man.

Howard Gossage

The buying of time or space is not the taking out of a hunting license on someone else's private preserve but is the renting of a stage on which we may perform.

Howard Gossage

If you have a lemon, make lemonade.

Howard Gossage

Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest-it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes.

Howard Gossage

I don't know how to speak to everybody, only to somebody.

Howard Gossage

I have been waiting twenty years for someone to say to me: "You have to fight fire with fire" so that I could reply, "That's funny-I always use water."

Howard Gossage

The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it's an ad.

Howard Gossage

If you have a lemon; make lemonade.

Howard Gossage