“The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit, a reputation, character.”

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.

The role of an actor is to make every character believable.

As many know, the Chinese expression for “crisis” consists of two characters side by side. The first is the symbol for “danger,” the second the symbol for “opportunity.”

One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.

Year by year, the monkey’s mask reveals the monkey.

A big part of what I wanted to do with this character was go from when I was a boy and try and develop into a man, really try and play him as a man who is on this search, on a journey of personal, spiritual, political, social discovery.

There is scarcely any man, how much soever he may despise the character of a flatterer, but will condescend in the meanest manner to flatter himself.

Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.

Be bold, and everywhere be bold.