“Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.”

I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure.

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

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.

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.

The day of combination is here to stay. Individualism has gone, never to return.

Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.

I believe it is a religious duty to get all the money you can, fairly and honestly; to keep all you can, and to give away all you can.

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.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

I wanted the best for my company, I had to do what I did to succeed. Everyone was lowering their prices to beat there competition so I did the same I eventually beat my competition.

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?”

I have long been profoundly convinced that in the very nature of things, employers and employees are partners, not enemies; that their interests are common not opposed; that in the long run the success of each is dependent upon the success of the other.

Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.

I have made many millions but they have brought me no happiness.

Against the charitable gesture there is no defence.

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

My father was always not concerned about the wealth I have, but every year he would ask me, how much have you given in charity? And how much taxes have you paid?

I have lived a long time, and one thing I have come to see is that one is well served by a degree of both humility and charity when judging the inner workings of another person’s heart.

War and courage have done more great things than charity. Not your sympathy, but your bravery has saved the unfotunate.

Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege.

Let not a single day pass without your learning a verse, half a verse, or a fourth of it, or even one letter of it; nor without attending to charity, study and other pious activity.

I have nothing else to say other than I wasn’t corrupt, unfair, or greedy. I was smart when it came to making decisions for my company, and I wasn’t greedy. I gave to others in charity and donated money to fund programs. I have nothing else to say.