Top 119 Quotes & Sayings by John D. Rockefeller

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American businessman John D. Rockefeller.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
John D. Rockefeller

John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in upstate New York that moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder.

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.
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. — © John D. Rockefeller
Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.
I have ways of making money that you know nothing of.
I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.
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.
A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.
I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people's efforts than 100% of my own efforts.
The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?
It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.
Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.
Don't blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.
Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty. — © John D. Rockefeller
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.
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.
Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one's aim.
Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.
There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; nothing that can satisfy but Christ.
Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in.
I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.
I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.
Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit... a reputation, character.
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.
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.
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.
If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.
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.
Competition is a sin.
After it is all over, the religion of man is his most important possession.
Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.
I never placed my head upon the pillow at night without reminding myself that my success might only be temporary.
The secret of success is to get up early, work late and strike oil.
The man will be most successful who confers the greatest service on the world.
Own nothing, control everything.
Never lose interest in life and the world. Never allow yourself to become annoyed. — © John D. Rockefeller
Never lose interest in life and the world. Never allow yourself to become annoyed.
Who is the poorest man in the world? I tell you, the poorest man I know of is the man who has nothing but money.
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.
There is no feeling in this world to be compared with self-reliance--do not sacrifice that to anything else.
Giving is the secret to a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a person has to give of encouragement, sympathy, and understanding.
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.
The common denominator for success is work.
Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed
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?
It is very important to remember what other people tell you, not so much what you yourself already know.
The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won't succeed, you must have a larger ambition. — © John D. Rockefeller
The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won't succeed, you must have a larger ambition.
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.
Save when you can and not when you have to.
Be sure that you are not deceiving yourself at any time about actual conditions.
I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.
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.
I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers
Oh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life.
How much money does it take to make a man happy? Just one more dollar.
Get rich by taking something common and making it uncommon.
The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.
I have made many millions but they have brought me no happiness.
Character - not wealth, power, or position - is the supreme word.
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