John Rockefeller Quotes

180 John Rockefeller Quotes

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[On asking a workman soldering the tops on metal barrels how many dots of solder were used. ‘Forty’ was the reply] Have you tried thirty-eight?
John Rockefeller

Probably in the life of every one there comes a time when he is inclined to go over again the events, great and small, which have made up the incidents of his work and pleasure…
John Rockefeller

If one talks about one’s experiences, there is a natural temptation to charge one with traveling the easy road to egotism; if one keeps silence, the inference of wrong-doing is sometimes even more difficult to meet, as it would then be said that there is no valid defence to be offered.
John Rockefeller

If a tenth of the things that have been said are true, then these dozens of able and faithful men who have been associated with me, many of whom have passed away, must have been guilty of grave faults.
John Rockefeller

It is only reasonable that the public should have some first-hand facts to draw from in making up its final estimate.
John Rockefeller

I am so busy that no day is long enough.
John Rockefeller

It is not always the easiest of tasks to induce strong, forceful men to agree.
John Rockefeller

The men who have been very successful are… conservative, since they have much to lose in case of disaster. But fortunately there are also the aggressive and more daring ones, and they are usually the youngest in the company, perhaps few in number, but impetuous and convincing. They want to accomplish things and to move quickly, and they don’t mind any amount of work or responsibility.
John Rockefeller

It’s a pity to get a man into a place in an argument where he is defending a position instead of considering the evidence. His calms judgment is apt to leave him, and his mind is for the time being closed, and only obstinacy remains.
John Rockefeller

I’ll take it, and supply this capital myself. If the expenditure turns out to be profitable the company can repay me; and if it goes wrong, I’ll stand the loss.
John Rockefeller



It is always… a question in every business just how fast it is wise to go…
John Rockefeller

We went pretty rapidly in those days, building and expanding in all directions. We were being confronted with fresh emergencies constantly. A new oil field would be discovered, tanks for the storage had to be built almost over night…
John Rockefeller

Some of us wanted to jump at once into big expenditures, and others to keep to more moderate ones. It was usually a compromise, but one at a time we took these matters up and settled them, never going as fast as the most progressive ones wished, nor quite so carefully as the conservatives desired, but always made the vote unanimous in the end.
John Rockefeller

Some of us wanted to jump at once into big expenditures, and others to keep to more moderate ones. It was usually a compromise…
John Rockefeller

[On H. M. Flagler single handedly building up the East Coast of Florida] It was to be expected of such a man that he should fulfill his destiny by working out some great problems at a time when most men want to retire to a comfortable life of ease.
John Rockefeller

One man, by his own energy and capital, has opened up a vast stretch of country, so that the old inhabitants and the new settlers may have a market for their products.
John Rockefeller

When a refinery was to be put up, it should be different from the flimsy shacks which it was then the custom to build. Every one was so afraid that the oil would disappear and that the money expended in buildings would be a loss that the meanest and cheapest buildings were erected for use as refineries.
John Rockefeller

He always believed that if we went into the oil business at all, we should do the work as well as we knew how; that we should have the very best facilities; that everything should be solid and substantial; and that nothing should be left undone to produce the finest results.
John Rockefeller

Old men’s tales can hardly be interesting to the present generation, though perhaps they will not be useless if even tiresome stories make young people realize how, above all other possessions, is the value of a friend in every department of life without any exception whatsoever.
John Rockefeller

How many different kinds of friends there are!
John Rockefeller



I was always a great borrower in my early days; the business was active and growing fast, and the banks seemed very willing to loan me the money.
John Rockefeller

I learned to have great respect for figures and facts, no matter how small they were.
John Rockefeller

Of all the profitable things which develop quickly under the hand, I have thought my young [tree] nurseries show the greatest yield… I was amazed not long ago at the increase in value that a few years make in growing things…
John Rockefeller

We make a small fortune… by selling … at $1.50 or $2.00 each, trees which originally cost us only five or ten cents…
John Rockefeller

We were so successful that we became rather reckless…
John Rockefeller

[On his father] He taught me the principles and methods of business.
John Rockefeller

When I was seven or eight years old I engaged in my first business enterprise with the assistance of my mother. I owned some turkeys… and sold them all in business-like fashion.
John Rockefeller

[On his first role as a bookkeeper] The firm conducted a business with so many ramifications that this education was quite extensive. They owned dwelling-houses, warehouses and buildings which were rented for offices and a variety of uses, and I had to collect the rents. They shipped by rail, canal, and lake. There were many different kinds of negotiations and transactions going on, and with all these I was in close touch.
John Rockefeller

[On being told as a bookkeeper to flippantly pay a bill just received.] I had trained myself to the point of view doubtless held by many young men in business today, that my check on a bill was the executive act which released my employer’s money from the till and was attended with more responsibility than the spending of my own funds. I had made up my mind that such business methods could not succeed.
John Rockefeller

[Before the age of 21] It was a great thing to be my own employer.
John Rockefeller



Think of it, a bank had trusted me for $2,000! I felt that I was now a man of importance in the community.
John Rockefeller

Business came in upon us so fast that we hardly knew how to take care of it, and in the first year our sales amounted to half a million dollars.
John Rockefeller

I was afraid I could not stand my prosperity, and tried to teach myself not to get puffed up with any foolish notions.
John Rockefeller

[On his father lending him money and charging him 10% interest and sometimes saying ‘My son, I find I have got to have that money.’] ‘Of course, you shall it at once,’ I would answer, but I knew that he was testing me, and that when I paid him, he would hold the money without its earning anything for a little time, and then offer it back later.
John Rockefeller

[On his father being disciplined when lending money to his son for his business] I confess that this little discipline should have done me good, and perhaps did, but while I concealed it from him, the truth is I was not particularly pleased with his application of tests to discover if my financial ability was equal to such shocks.
John Rockefeller

One can hardly realize how difficult it was to get capital for active business enterprises at that time.
John Rockefeller

To judge the character of all the members of a great organization or the organization itself by the actions of a few individuals would be manifestly unfair.
John Rockefeller

It has been said that I forced the men who became my partners in the oil business to join with me. I would not have been so short-sighted.
John Rockefeller

[On developing Standard Oil and expansion throughout many countries in the world] Do you think this trade has been developed by anything but hard work?
John Rockefeller

This plan of selling our products direct to the consumer and the exceptionally rapid growth of the business bred a certain antagonism…
John Rockefeller



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