Henry Ford

"When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat."

"You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together."

"There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years."

"It is perhaps well enough that the people of the Nation do not know or understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."

"Variant: If the American people knew the corruption in our money system there would be revolution before morning."

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

"Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time."

"My best friend is one who brings out the best in me."

"Any man who thinks he is going to be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him should take a close look at the American Indian."

"Industrialist Henry Ford hated jazz. He thought it was a Jewish conspiracy to use black music to get good white people into booze, cigarettes and sex."

"He draws upon his subconscious mind."

"Only workers are forbidden to be internationalists. It’s perfectly proper for J. P. Morgan and Henry Ford; for the bankers, the munitions trusts, the chemical companies. It’s proper for scientists, stamp collectors, athletic associations, musicians, spiritualists, people who raise bees, to be internationalist – but not workers. Only the clasped hands of the workers across the boundaries are struck down in every country."

"One of the strangest demonstrations for peace at that time was the Ford Peace Party which chartered a ship, the Oscar II, known as the Peace Ship. It sailed on December 4, 1915 and its slogan was: "Get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas." Henry Ford paid all the expenses of the trip, it was rumored. The pilgrims for peace numbered about 30 determined souls, including Miss Addams, Miss Balch, Miss Beckenridge of Chicago and amazingly enough William C. Bullit of Philadelphia. The roster of prominent, honest Americans who stood squarely for peace and for keeping us out of war was impressive, including statesmen, ministers, professors, labor leaders, women leaders, writers, editors and even capitalists. However, we of the IWW took no part in any of these pacifist activities. To us it was a grim joke to see an anti-union exploiter like Ford a participant in a peace movement. We were suspicious of non-working-class elements of all sorts and held ourselves aloof from them. Yet, it was the IWW that bore the full impact of wartime prosecution as soon as war was declared."

"If there is any certainty as to what a businessman is, he is assuredly the things Ford was not."

"we feel that we don't want abstract equality rights, we want material equality. That means the redistribution of the wealth in this society. And that means that people like Nelson Rockefeller and Henry Ford or the Bishop Estate or Dillingham or whatever, they have to redistribute the wealth that they have robbed from the poor working people of the world. I mean, they made if off our backs. Henry Ford, he made the first Model T. After that, who made all the other cars. So it wasn't him, it was the people who work in the automobile factories, who sweat in 100 degree temperatures; who risk industrial accidents for a lousy $150 a week. And he makes millions every year. And he ain't produced shit. I mean, he just sits behind his desk and writes papers, either that or signs checks. That's the reality of the way society functions. And what we say, we do want a redistribution of that wealth-spread it among the people it's been robbed from. Return it to the people it belongs to."

"Jeder kann seinen Wagen beliebig anstreichen lassen, wenn der Wagen nur schwarz ist."

"Hunderte von amerikanischen Vermögen datieren aus dem amerikanischen Bürgerkriege, ebenso wie Tausende von neuen Vermögen aus dem Weltkrieg stammen. Niemand kann leugnen, daß Kriege ein gutes Geschäft für diejenigen bedeuten, die diese Art von Geld lieben. Kriege sind eine Orgie von Geld nicht minder als eine Orgie von Blut."

"Es gibt mehr Menschen, die kapitulieren als scheitern."

"Eine unvoreingenommene Untersuchung des letzten Krieges, der vorhergehenden Ereignisse und seiner Folgen ergibt den unantastbaren Beweis, daß es in der Welt eine gewaltige Gruppe von Machthabern gibt, die es vorziehen im Dunkeln zu bleiben, die weder Ämter noch äußere Machtinsignien erstreben, die auch keiner bestimmten Nation angehören sondern international sind."

"Geschichte ist weitgehend Humbug."

"Geschichte ist Mumpitz."