John Rockefeller Quotes

180 John Rockefeller Quotes

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We did not ruthlessly go after the trade of our competitors and attempt to ruin it by cutting prices or instituting a spy system. We had set ourselves the task of building up as rapidly and as broadly as possible the volume of consumption.
John Rockefeller

We had to create selling methods far in advance of what then existed…
John Rockefeller

None of us ever dreamed of the magnitude of what proved to be the later expansion. We did our day’s work as we met it, looking forward to what we could see in the distance and keeping well up to our opportunities, but laying our foundations firmly.
John Rockefeller

Looking forward to what we could see in the distance… but laying our foundations firmly.
John Rockefeller

Capital was most difficult to secure, and it was not easy to interest conservative men in this adventurous business. Men of property were afraid of it…
John Rockefeller

The enterprise being so new and novel, on account of the fearfulness of certain holders in reference to its success, we frequently had to take stock to keep it from going begging, but we had such confidence in the fundamental value of the concern that we were willing to assume this risk.
John Rockefeller

There are always a few men in an undertaking of this kind who would risk all on their judgment of the final result, and if the enterprise had failed, these would have been classed as visionary adventurers, and perhaps with good reason.
John Rockefeller

There are always a few men… who would risk all on their judgment of the final result…
John Rockefeller

If there is any better function of business management than giving profitable work to employees years after year, in good times and bad, I don’t know what it is.
John Rockefeller

Every time we succeeded in a foreign land, it meant dollars brought to this country, and every time we failed, it was a loss to our nation and its workmen.
John Rockefeller



To succeed in a business requires the best and most earnest men to manage it, and the best men rise to the top.
John Rockefeller

The corporation in form and character has come to stay – that is a thing that may be depended upon.
John Rockefeller

The day of individual competition in large affairs is past and gone – you might just as well argue that we should go back to hand labour and throw away our efficient machines…
John Rockefeller

The chief advantages from industrial combinations are those which can be derived from a cooperation of person and aggregation of capital.
John Rockefeller

Much that one man cannot do alone two can do together…
John Rockefeller

If the business grows or can be made to grow, more persons and more capital must be taken in.
John Rockefeller

It is too late to argue about advantages of industrial combinations. They are a necessity.
John Rockefeller

The great economic era we are entering will give splendid opportunity to the young man of the future.
John Rockefeller

We had to hew our own paths along new lines… We had little experience to go on. Capital was most difficult to get…
John Rockefeller

[In 1909] The men of this generation are entering into a heritage which makes their fathers’ lives look poverty-stricken by comparison.
John Rockefeller



I am naturally an optimist…
John Rockefeller

There are many things we must do to attain the highest benefit from all these great blessings…
John Rockefeller

I have no sympathy with the idea so often advanced that our basis of all judgments in this country is founded on money. If this were true, we should be a nation of money hoarders instead of spenders.
John Rockefeller

We are the most extra-ordinarily ambitious, and the success of one man in any walk of life spurs the others on.
John Rockefeller

We know how much we made and where we gained or lost. At least, we tried not to deceive ourselves.
John Rockefeller

My ideas of business are no doubt old-fashioned, but the fundamental principles do not change from generation to generation…
John Rockefeller

Many people assume that they can get away from the truth by avoiding thinking about it, but the natural law is inevitable, and the sooner it is recognized, the better.
John Rockefeller

You can’t hold up conditions artificially, and you can’t change the underlying laws of trade. If you try, you must inevitably fail.
John Rockefeller

It is remarkable how many men overlook what should be the obvious.
John Rockefeller

A businessman must adapt himself to the natural conditions as they exist from month to month and year to year.
John Rockefeller



Sometimes I feel that we Americans think we can find a short road to success…
John Rockefeller

Real efficiency in work comes from knowing your facts and building upon that sure foundation.
John Rockefeller

Many men of wealth do not retire from business even when they can. They are not willing to be idle…these men are the great builders… in our country.
John Rockefeller

If a man has succeeded, he has brought upon himself corresponding responsibilities. And our institutions devoted to helping men to help themselves need the brain of the American business man as well as part of his money.
John Rockefeller

I saw great opportunities in refining oil, and did not realize at that time that the whole oil industry would soon be swamped by so many men rushing into it. But I was full of hope…
John Rockefeller

It was only a short time before more of the finished product was put on the market than could possibly be consumed. The price went down and down…
John Rockefeller

At best it was a speculative trade, and I wonder that we managed to pull through so often; but we were gradually learning how to conduct a most difficult business.
John Rockefeller

I ascribe the success of the Standard Oil Company to its consistent policy of making the volume of its business large through the merit and cheapness of its products. It has spared no expense in utilizing the best and most efficient method of manufacture… It has not hesitated to sacrifice old machinery and old plants for new and better ones.
John Rockefeller

We devoted ourselves exclusively to the oil business and its products. The company never went into outside ventures, but kept to the enormous task of perfecting its own organization.
John Rockefeller

Many people who thought they were wealthy found that the actual facts were quite different from what they had imagined when the hard experiences of that panic [Of 1893] forced upon them the unpalatable truth.
John Rockefeller



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