John D Rockefeller Quotes

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

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

It is very important to remember what other people tell you, not so much what you yourself already know. ~ John D. Rockefeller

Own nothing, control everything. ~ John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller said, 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. ~ Dale Carnegie

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

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

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

Musk's vision, and, of late, execution seem to combine the best of Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller. With ~ Ashlee Vance

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

A man's wealth must be determined by the relation of his desires and expenditures to his income. If he feels rich on ten dollars, and has everything else he desires, he really is rich. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

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

The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it put your whole soul into it-every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have. ~ John D. Rockefeller III

John D Rockefeller read his Bible religiously, but kept his ledger in a different drawer. ~ H.W. Brands

God gave me my money. ~ John D. Rockefeller

This was the invention of modern American philanthropy as we know it. The idea of systematizing giving to achieve human progress was the true innovation of John D. Rockefeller, and ultimately the Rockefeller Foundation's legacy. ~ Judith Rodin

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

If my name were John D Smith IV I wouldn't have been elected to anything. ~ John D. Rockefeller

A man has no right to occupy another man's time unnecessarily ~ John D. Rockefeller

Probably the greatest single obstacle to the progress and happiness of the American people lies in the willingness of so many men to invest their time and money in multiplying competitive industries instead of opening up new fields, and putting their money into lines of industry and development that are needed. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

The best business in the world is a well run oil company. The second best business in the world is a badly run oil company. ~ John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

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

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

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

It has always been my rule in business to make everything count. ~ John D. Rockefeller

The only thing which is of lasting benefit to a man is that which he does for himself. Money which comes to him without effort on his part is seldom a benefit and often a curse. ~ John D. Rockefeller

Money is a way of keeping COUNT on how well you're doing in business. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

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 every day. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

I shall never forget the despair and agony on the parents' faces on the awful day of the funeral when the 13 little children, victims not only of John D. Rockefeller, but of the government of the state of Colorado were buried. ~ Ella R. Bloor

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

The task is simple. We will organize children and teach them in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way. ~ John D. Rockefeller

It is one thing to stand on the comfortable ground of placid inaction and put forth words of cynical wisdom, and another to plunge into the work itself and through strenuous experience earn the right to express strong conclusions. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

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

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

I should say in general the advantage of education is to better fit a man for life's work. I would advise young men to take a college course, as a rule, but think some are just as well off with a thorough business training. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

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

Get rich by taking something common and making it uncommon. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

Cornelius Vanderbilt and his fellow tycoon John D. Rockefeller were often called 'robber barons'. Newspapers said they were evil, and ran cartoons showing Vanderbilt as a leech sucking the blood of the poor. Rockefeller was depicted as a snake. What the newspapers printed stuck--we still think of Vanderbilt and Rockefeller as 'robber barons'. But it was a lie. They were neither robbers nor barons. They weren't robbers, because they didn't steal from anyone, and they weren't barons--they were born poor.
Vanderbilt got rich by pleasing people. He invented ways to make travel and shipping things cheaper. He used bigger ships, faster ships, served food onboard. People liked that. And the extra volume of business he attracted allowed him to lower costs. He cut the New York--Hartford fare from $8 to $1. That gave consumers more than any 'consumer group' ever has.
It's telling that the 'robber baron' name-calling didn't come from consumers. It was competing businessmen who complained, and persuaded the media to join in.
Rockefeller got rich selling oil. First competitors and then the government called him a monopolist, but he wasn't--he had competitors. No one was forced to buy his oil. Rockefeller enticed people to buy it by selling it for less. That's what his competitors hated. He found cheaper ways to get oil from the ground to the gas pump. This made life better for millions. Working-class people, who used to go to bed when it got dark, could suddenly afford fuel ~ John Stossel

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

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

John D. Rockefeller was certainly the first to create a consumer product that was sold literally throughout the entire world. Those blue 5-gallon cans showed up in some of the remotest parts of the world. ~ Charles R. Morris

Nobody does anything if he can get anybody else to do it ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

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

I never placed my head upon the pillow at night without reminding myself that my success might only be temporary. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

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

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

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

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.

I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond, that character - not wealth or power or position - is of supreme worth.

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individual's highest fulfillment, greatest happiness and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

I believe that love is the greatest t ~ John D. Rockefeller

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

In the same way the failures which a man makes in his life are due almost always to some defect in his personality, some weakness of body, or mind, or character, will, or temperament. The only way to overcome these failings is to build up his personality from within, so that he, by virtue of what is within him, may overcome the weakness which was the cause of the failure. It is only those efforts the man himself puts forth that can really help him. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

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

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

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

We are coming to see that there should be no stifling of labor by capital, or of capital by labor; and also that there should be no stifling of labor by labor, or of capital by capital. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

John D. Rockefeller wanted to dominate oil, but Microsoft wants it all, you name it: cable, media, banking, car dealerships. ~ Ralph Nader

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

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

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

Social Security got passed because John D. Rockefeller was sick of having to take money out of his profits to pay for his workers' pension funds. Why do that, when you can just let the government take money from the workers? ~ Aaron Swartz

Competition is a sin. ~ John D. Rockefeller

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

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

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

Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege. ~ John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

It is a practical world, Mr. Owen, and we have to do practical things. ~ John D. MacDonald

I drove out. There were a half-dozen cars there. A house man let me in. Brell came hurrying to me to pump my hand. He was a trim-bodied man in his late forties, dark and handsome in a slightly vulpine way, and I suspected he wore a very expensive and inconspicuous hair piece. He looked the type to go bald early. He had a resonant voice and a slightly theatrical presence. He wore tailored twill ranch pants and a crisp white shirt with blue piping. ~ John D. MacDonald

The person is otherness in communion and communion in otherness. The person is an identity that emerges through relationship; it is an 'I' that can exist only as long as it relates to a 'thou' which affirms it's existence and it's otherness. If we isolate the 'I' from the 'thou' we lose not only it's otherness but also it's very being; it simply cannot be without the other.
Personhood is freedom. In its anthropological significance, personhood is inconceivable without freedom; it is the freedom of being other. I hesitate to say 'different' instead of 'other', because 'different' can be understood in the sense of qualities (clever, beautiful, etc.), which is not what the person is about. Person implies not simply the freedom to have qualities, but mainly the freedom simply to be yourself.
And yet because, as we have already observed, one person is no person, this freedom is not freedom *from* the other but freedom *for* the other. Freedom thus becomes identical with *love*. We can love only if we are persons, that is, if we allow the other to be truly other, and yet to be in communion with us. If we love the other not only in spite of his of her being different from us but *because* he or she is different from us, or rather *other* than ourselves, we live in freedom as love and in love as freedom .
[In this way] personhood is creativity. Freedom is not *from* but *for* someone or something other than ourselves. This makes the person *ec-static*, that is, goin ~ John D. Zizioulas

In the entire works of the Jewish historian Josephus (37-c. 100 CE), which constitute hundreds of pages, there are only two paragraphs that purport to refer to Jesus. Although much has been made of these 'references,' they have been dismissed by many scholars and even by Christian apologists as forgeries, as have been those referring to John the Baptist and James, 'brother' of Jesus. Bishop Warburton (1698-1779) labeled the Josephus interpolation regarding Jesus as 'a rank forgery, and a very stupid one, too. ~ D.M. Murdock

Molly Bea, she of the hard white breasts lightly dusted with golden freckles, would never be so humiliated by life because she could never become as deeply involved in the meaty toughness of life. She would never be victimized by her own illusions because they were not essential to her. She could always find new ones when the old ones wore out. But Cathy was stuck with hers. The illusion of love, magically changed to a memory of shame. ~ John D. MacDonald

Orthodoxy is idolatry if it means holding the 'correct opinions about God' - 'fundamentalism' is the most extreme and salient example of such idolatry - but not if it means holding faith in the right way, that is, not holding it at all but being held by God, in love and service. Theology is idolatry if it means what we say about God instead of letting ourselves be addressed by what God has to say to us. Faith is idolatrous if it is rigidly self-certain but not if it is softened in the waters of 'doubt. ~ John D. Caputo

He chuckled and pulled himself to his feet. "End of session, McGee. Good night and good luck." At the door he turned and said, "I'll have you checked out, of course. Just for the hell of it. I'm a careful and inquisitive man. ~ John D. MacDonald

We can understand that the Fathers of the Church in the East wanted Apocalypse left out of the New Testament. But like Judas among the disciples, it was inevitable that it should be included. The Apocalypse is the feet of clay to the grand Christian image. And down crashes the image, on the weakness of these very feet. There is Jesus
but there is also John the Divine. There is Christian love
and there is Christian envy. The former would "save" the world
the latter will never be satisfied till it has destroyed the world. They are two sides of the same medal. ~ D.H. Lawrence

Culture cannot be a monolithically universal phenomenon without some kind of demonic imposition of one culture over the rest of cultures. Nor is it possible to dream of a universal "Christian culture" without denying the dialectic between history and eschatology which is so central, among other things, to the eucharist itself. Thus, if there is a transcendence of cultural divisions on a universal level - which indeed must be constantly aimed at by the Church - it can only take place via the local situations expressed in and through the particular local Churches and not through universalistic structures which imply a universal Church. ~ John D. Zizioulas

The happiest years of my mother's life were spent in Washington, D.C. It was where she met my father, where John was born and where I spent my earliest years. ~ Caroline Kennedy

Now one day, maybe I can forgive John Andersen for what he done to these trees, but I ain't gonna forget it. I figure forgiving is not letting something nag at you - rotting you out. ~ Mildred D. Taylor

She was back in three minutes just to tell me that she couldn't guarantee she wouldn't get a little nutty from time to time, but she felt she was past the pill period, and then she headed back toward the beach, a lissome broad in her mirrored sunglasses, walking on good legs, and she was far younger than her years, yet old as the sea she approached. ~ John D. MacDonald

Three laws governing black hole changes were thus found, but it was soon noticed that something unusual was going on. If one merely replaced the words 'surface area' by 'entropy' and 'gravitational field' by 'temperature', then the laws of black hole changes became merely statements of the laws of thermodynamics. The rule that the horizon surface areas can never decrease in physical processes becomes the second law of thermodynamics that the entropy can never decrease; the constancy of the gravitational field around the horizon is the so-called zeroth law of thermodynamics that the temperature must be the same everywhere in a state of thermal equilibrium. The rule linking allowed changes in the defining quantities of the black hole just becomes the first law of thermodynamics, which is more commonly known as the conservation of energy. ~ John D. Barrow

People cannot endure inexplicable worthlessness ~ John D. MacDonald

When you look at pictures of people you know are dead, there is something different about the eyes. As if they anticipated their particular fate.It is a visceral recognition. I told myself I was getting too fanciful and went to bed. ~ John D. MacDonald

I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on All that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof! President Franklin D. Roosevelt had this lettered in gold in the marble over the fireplace in the State Dining Room of the White House. The quotation above follows the capitalization used in the inscription. ~ John Adams

When you see the ugliness behind the tears of another person, it makes you take a closer look at your own. ~ John D. MacDonald

Willy Lazeer is an acquaintance. His teeth and his feet hurt. He hates the climate, the Power Squadron, the government and his wife. The vast load of hate has left him numbed rather than bitter. In appearance, it is as though somebody bleached Sinatra, skinned him, and made Willy wear him. ~ John D. MacDonald

In spite of the air conditioning, she had filled the lounge with a faint sharp-sweet odor of large overheated girl. ~ John D. MacDonald

For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace" (D&C 93:19–20). And then a few verses later the Lord says: And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come; And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning. The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth; And no man receiveth... ~ Henry B. Eyring

Over the weekend, John Kerry - the big John Kerry juggernaut moves on - he won primaries in Washington D.C., Nevada and, I think, Canada. And he's so confident that he's started nailing that intern again. ~ David Letterman

I think he'll wait until he gets the new generator installed." "But what if he leaves with them in the morning?" "If that seems too dreadful to you, Lois, you can always get drunk." "You don't have to be so cruel." "You disappointed me." "I know. I'm sorry." "How's your head now?" "A little better, I think. Trav?" "Yes, honey." "Trav, I'm so hungry I could eat this bench. ~ John D. MacDonald

When we perfect 3-D copiers and they reproduce tissue, we'll have a million Marilyns walking around with no souls ... ~ John Geddes

lithographic
landscape beyond the forgotten

ocean of the innermost ear

where one boy, with a wolf for a heart, wants
to eat the songbird nesting inside the other ~ John D. Fry