J. Paul Getty Quotes

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

The rich are not born sceptical or cynical. They are made that way by events, circumstances.

The Roaring Twenties were the period of that Great American Prosperity which was built on shaky foundations.

I've never been one to bet on the weather.

There may be some substitute for hard facts, but if there is, I have no idea what it can be.

I was brought up in an era when thrift was still considered a virtue.

Governments, of course, can - and do - soak the rich.

You cannot further the Brotherhood of Man by encouraging class hatred.

The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips.

Jack Dempsey and I became friends in the very early 1920s.

I am - and have always been - a Methodist.

A man can fail, but he isn't a failure until he blames someone else.

During the 1950s, Aristotle Onassis and I formed what grew to be a close friendship and association in several business ventures.

Once you have made it, you will understand that any business is limited in the challenges it offers. You will want and need other games to play, so you will look for other ventures to hold your interest.

The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.

Men of means look at making money as a game which they love to play.

No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or 'get rich' in business by being a conformist.

If you can actually count your money, then you're not a rich man.

I find all this money a considerable burden.

There are at least 50 cities in the world that would have liked to obtain the Getty Collection.

I hate to be a failure. I hate and regret the failure of my marriages. I would gladly give all my millions for just one lasting marital success.

In some respects, a society in which the members reach a universal level in which they are anonymous drones by choice is even more frightening than one in which they are forced to be so against their will. When human beings relinquish their individuality and identity of their own volition, they are also relinquishing their claim to being human.

Some people find oil. Others don't.

To build wealth today, you must be in your own business.

Americans ... automatically equate dissension with disloyalty. They view any criticism of our existing social, economic, and political forms, as sedition and subversion ... (" The growing reluctance of Americans to criticize, and their increasing tendency to condemn those who, in ever dwindling numbers, will still voice dissent") is disturbing, deplorable, and truly dangerous.

My evanescent anarchistic tendencies are purely classical. I use the word anarchist in the sense in which it was understood by the ancient Greeks. They, of course, accepted the anarchist as a fairly respectable--if somewhat vehement--opponent of government encroachment on the individual's rights to think and act freely. It is in this sense that I glimpse myself as an anarchist--regretting the growth of government and the ever-increasing trend toward regulation and, worst of all, standardization of human activity.

Getting results through people is a skill that cannot be learned in the classroom.

A sense of thrift is essential to success in business. The businessman must discipline himself to practice economy whenever possible, in his personal life as well as his business affairs.

A lasting relationship with a woman is only possible if you are a business failure,

I would rather receive one percent of the income of 100 men, than 100% of the income of one man.

I am neither a homosexual nor a eunuch, nor have I ever taken any vows of chastity.

There are always opportunities through which businessmen can profit handsomely if they will only recognize and seize them.

Before marriage, many couples are very much like people rushing to catch an airplane; once aboard, they turn into passengers. They just sit there.

I have no complex about wealth. I have worked very hard for my money; producing things people need.

The #1 guideline to success is you must be in business for yourself. When you work for someone else, you sell your time at wholesale to your employer, who then re-sells it at retail to the customer.

Whether we like it or not, men and women are not the same in nature, temperament, emotions and emotional responses.

Today's dissenters mainly focus their attention and expend their energies on the most inconsequential of trivia ... Allegedly serious intellectuals quibble endlessly over such ridiculous trivialities ... In the meantime, the public is lulled into a perilous somnolence, spoon-fed pap, and palpable untruths, many of which are turned out by special-interest and pressure groups and well organized propaganda machines.

In my own opinion, the average American's cultural shortcomings can be likened to those of the educated barbarians of ancient Rome. These were barbarians who learned to speak--and often to read and write--Latin. They acquired Roman habits of dress and deportment. Many of them handily mastered Roman commercial, engineering and military techniques--but they remained barbarians nonetheless. They failed to develop any understanding, appreciation or love for the art and culture of the great civilization around them.

Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves.

Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying.

There is obviously something wrong with our educational system. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that there might even be something wrong with at least some of our schoolteachers. But heaven help anyone daring to express such heretical views.

Wealth is only a benefit of the game of money. If you win, the money will be there.

Going to work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going sixty miles an hour or is the train going sixty miles an hour and you're just sitting still?

I have absolutely no intention of marrying Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Remember, a billion dollars isn't worth what it used to be.

I'd rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.

You cannot bring about prosperity without discouraging thrift.

The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him-and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires.

Nationalized industries are notorious for their inability to operate at a profit.

People who don't respect money don't have any.

If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.

Some of our newspapers and magazines are more concerned with the welfare of their advertisers than they are with the dissemination of news and the discussion of matters of lasting importance ... Radio, television, motion pictures, popular books - all contribute ... to ... the stifling of dissent on all but the most banal levels ... a renunciation of the most basic and precious of democratic principles.

Money is like manure, you don't have to spread it around, you can just sell it to Potash Corp as fertilizer.

My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil.

A hatred of failure has always been part of my nature.

I buy when other people are selling.

Money isn't everything but it sure keeps you in touch with your children.

Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience.

The conformist is not born. He is made. I believe the brainwashing process begins in the schools and colleges.

You must never try to make all the money that's in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won't have many deals.

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.