“I never placed my head upon the pillow at night without reminding myself that my success might only be temporary.”

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.

There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; nothing that can satisfy but Christ.

Insecurity cuts deeper and extends more widely than bare unemployment. Fear of loss of work, dread of the oncoming of old age, create anxiety and eat into self-respect in a way that impairs personal dignity.

Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.

We cannot let hatred and fear stop us from living.

He who fears to weep, should learn to be kind to those who weep.

That’s what terror does to you. It weakens you. It deflates you.

Never let fear define who you are, and never let where you came from determine where you are going.

Courage consists not in hazarding without fear; but being resolutely minded in a just cause.

No power on earth, if it labours beneath the burden of fear, can possibly be strong enough to survive.