Looking for inspirational John D. Rockefeller quotes?
John D. Rockefeller was an American industrialist, entrepreneur, CEO and one of, if not the richest man in history.
At the age of 14 years old Rockefella started several small businesses before landing his first real job at 16, where he was an assistant bookkeeper at Hewitt & Tuttle.
At the age of 20 he decided to start his own venture with a business partner. He worked as a commission merchant in hay, grains, meat, and other goods. By the end of his first year in business, Rockefeller’s company had grossed $450,000.
It was in the early 1860s that Rockefeller spotted an opportunity in the oil business and decided to establish an oil refinery in Cleveland in 1863. After only 2 years it was the biggest refinery in the area and that’s when he decided to make it his full focus.
Standard Oil became so successful that it controlled the majority of refineries in the Cleveland area. Rockefeller used it’s size to make favourable deals and gained control over every aspect of the business.
In just over a decade since Standard Oil was incorporated it had a near total oil business monopoly, however was forced to completely dissolve in 1911 due to antitrust laws. By the time Rockefeller died in 1937, his assets equalled 1.5% of America’s total economic output.
John D. Rockefeller was an inspirational man who worked with singled mindedness and achieved phenomenal amounts of wealth. Below are the best John D. Rockefeller quotes so that you learn and be inspired by his wisdom.
55 John D. Rockefeller Quotes
1. “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” – John D. Rockefeller
2. “Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.” – John D. Rockefeller
3. “I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.” – John D. Rockefeller
4. “Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.” – John D. Rockefeller
5. “I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.” – John D. Rockefeller
6. “Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.” – John D. Rockefeller
7. “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
8. “Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.” – John D. Rockefeller
9. “The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?” – John D. Rockefeller
10. “I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.” – John D. Rockefeller
11. “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.” – John D. Rockefeller
12. “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.” – John D. Rockefeller
13. “A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.” – John D. Rockefeller
14. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D. Rockefeller
15. “If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.” – John D. Rockefeller
16. “Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.” – John D. Rockefeller
17. “Competition is a sin.” – John D. Rockefeller
18. “Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” – John D. Rockefeller
19. “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
20. “It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy.” – John D. Rockefeller
21. “I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living.” – John D. Rockefeller
22. “Perseverance can overcome all obstacles. Even the laws of nature cannot stop it.” – John D. Rockefeller
23. “He who works all day has no time to make money.” – John D. Rockefeller
24. “I believe that it is my duty to make money and use it for the benefit of my neighbors. This is what my conscience tells me.” – John D. Rockefeller
25. “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
26. “The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.” – John D. Rockefeller
27. “Own nothing, control everything.” – John D. Rockefeller
28. “Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.” – John D. Rockefeller
29. “The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit, a reputation, and character.” – John D. Rockefeller
30. “The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my slave and not make myself a slave to money.” – John D. Rockefeller
31. “I had no ambition to make a fortune. Mere money-making has never been my goal, I had an ambition to build.” – John D. Rockefeller
32. “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
33. “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?” – John D. Rockefeller
34. “I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can and will triumph over might.” – John D. Rockefeller
35. “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.” – John D. Rockefeller
36. “I think it is a man’s duty to make all the money he can, keep all that he can and give away all that he can.” – John D. Rockefeller
37. “The person who starts simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed; you must have a larger ambition.” – John D. Rockefeller
38. “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
39. “Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed.” – John D. Rockefeller
40. “I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.” – John D. Rockefeller
41. “Never lose interest in life and the world. Never allow yourself to become annoyed.” – John D. Rockefeller
42. “The man will be most successful who confers the greatest service on the world.” – John D. Rockefeller
43. “The secret of success is to get up early, work late and strike oil.” – John D. Rockefeller
44. “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
45. “I never placed my head upon the pillow at night without reminding myself that my success might only be temporary.” – John D. Rockefeller
46. “The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money.” – John D. Rockefeller
47. “There is no feeling in this world to be compared with self-reliance – do not sacrifice that to anything else.” – John D. Rockefeller
48. “Oh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life.” – John D. Rockefeller
49. “Save when you can and not when you have to.” – John D. Rockefeller
50. “Often-times the most difficult competition comes, not from the strong, the intelligent, the conservative competitor, but from the man who is holding on by the eyelids and is ignorant of his costs, and anyway he’s got to keep running or bust!” – John D. Rockefeller
51. “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” – John D. Rockefeller
52. “Get rich by taking something common and making it uncommon.” – John D. Rockefeller
53. “It has always been my rule in business to make everything count.” – John D. Rockefeller
54. “Money is a way of keeping count on how well you’re doing in business.” – John D. Rockefeller
55. “The common denominator for success is work.” – John D. Rockefeller
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