Henry Ford (1863–1947) was an American automobile industrialist and pioneer of large-scale mass production. He had a profound influence on the widespread use of motor vehicles. One of his key innovations, the moving assembly line, is the epitome of modern manufacturing.
Born on a farm near Dearborn, Michigan, Ford initially worked as a machine-shop apprentice, traction car operator, and engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company. He developed a gas-engine car in 1892, founded Ford Motor Company in 1903, and designed the Model T in 1908.
Inspired by Chicago’s meat-processing industry, Ford introduced a moving assembly line in 1913. It revolutionized industrial mass production. Ford then raised the minimum wage to $5 a day and reduced the workday to eight hours. Ford’s innovations ushered not just the automobile but also a wide variety of consumer goods to the mass market, opening the door to modern consumer culture.
Ford became infamous for his virulent anti-Semitic outlook, which he disseminated through his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. His leadership style was increasingly domineering; his anti-unionism caused labor violence at Ford plants during the Great Depression.
In later life, Ford withdrew from the day-to-day leadership of the Ford Motor Company and lived reclusively on his 2,000-acre Dearborn estate. He pursued many philanthropic projects, including Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital and the Ford Foundation.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Henry Ford
If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.
—Henry Ford
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.
—Henry Ford
Think you can, think you can’t; either way, you’ll be right.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Optimism, Positive Attitudes
The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
—Henry Ford
You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Execution, Action, Ambition, Character, Reputation
Whether you think you can or think you can’t – you are right.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Belief, Ability, Virtues
Time and money spent in helping men do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.
—Henry Ford
Competition whose motive is merely to compete, to drive some other fellow out, never carries very far. The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die. But when a business ceases to be creative, when it believes it has reached perfection and needs to do nothing but produce-no improvement, no development-it is done.
—Henry Ford
I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Potential, Positive Attitudes, Health, Possibilities, Optimism
If there is any great secret of success in life, it lies in the ability to put yourself in the other person’s place and to see things from his point of view—as well as your own.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Success
It is not the employer who pays the wages. He only handles the money. It is the product that pays the wages.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Business, Work
The object of living is work, experience, and happiness. There is joy in work. All that money can do is buy us someone else’s work in exchange for our own. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Work, Happiness, Religion, Goals, Accomplishment, Aspirations
One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Failure, Opportunity, Mistakes, Failures
It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Time, Time Management
The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.
—Henry Ford
When everything seems to be going against you, remember the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
—Henry Ford
My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Best, Friendship
There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Potential
It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
—Henry Ford
To do more for the world than the world does for you—that is success.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Helping
There are two ways of making yourself stand out from the crowd. One is by having a job so big you can go home before the bell rings if you want to. The other is by finding so much to do that you must stay after the others have gone. The one who enjoys the former once took advantage of the latter.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Work
I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done. If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Goals, Security, Possibilities, Knowledge, Potential, Money
The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Money
He who would really benefit mankind must reach them through their work.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Work
A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.
—Henry Ford
Topics: Boredom
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
—Henry Ford
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