Henry Ford

Henry Ford (1863 - 1947 ) automobile manufacturer

• "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."

• "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 damn is the history we make today." (1916 )
  • Source: interview in Chicago Tribune, 25 May 1916

• "People can have the Model T in any color - so long as it's black." VARIANT: "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."

• "Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."

• "If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."

• "Under pressure, the mouth speaks when the brain is disengaged, and, sometimes unwittingly, the gearshift is in reverse when it should be in neutral."

• "Thinking is the hardest work there is."

• "Thinking is hard work, which is why so few people do it."

• "It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."