Inspirational John D. Rockefeller Quotes on Wealth and Education

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Born John Davison Rockefeller on July 8, 1839 in Richford, New York, John. D. Rockefeller was an American industrialist, entrepreneur, and CEO. When he was 14, his family moved from New York to Cleveland, Ohio, and as a teenager, he began several small-business ventures.

He landed his first real job at 16, where he was an assistant bookkeeper at Hewitt & Tuttle. By the time he was 20, he left the job to venture out on his own with a business partner. He worked as a commission merchant in hay, grains, meat, and other goods. By the end of his first year in business, Rockefeller’s company had grossed $450,000.

By the 1860s, the careful Rockefeller sensed opportunity in the oil business and decided to establish an oil refinery near Cleveland, which opened in 1863. Two years later, his Cleveland refinery was the largest in the area, and it was then he chose to turn his full attention to the oil business. Standard Oil was extremely successful – so much so that it controlled the majority of Cleveland area refineries.

Rockefeller used the size of the refinery to make favorable deals to gain control over almost every aspect of the business. In just over a decade since Standard Oil was incorporated, it had a near total oil business monopoly, with Rockefeller being the overseer of everything.

However, antitrust issues came along and in 1911 Standard Oil was forced to completely dissolve. Rockefeller retired at age 56 and spent his time with charitable endeavors before his death on May 23, 1937. His son, John Jr., would continue his philanthropy.

John D. Rockefeller is inspirational because he never stopped working hard for what he wanted, but he also used the wealth he accrued to help others who needed it more than he did.

John D. Rockefeller Quotes on Wealth and Education

1. Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. – John D. Rockefeller

2. If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success. – John D. Rockefeller

3. I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living. – John D. Rockefeller

4. Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive. – John D. Rockefeller

5. The impression was gaining ground with me that it was a good thing to let the money be my slave and not make myself a slave to money. – John D. Rockefeller

John D Rockefeller Quotes on Wealth

6. I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature. – John D. Rockefeller

7. It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy. – John D. Rockefeller

8. I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake. – John D. Rockefeller

9. I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. – John D. Rockefeller

10. I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty. – John D. Rockefeller

11. Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim – John D. Rockefeller

John D Rockefeller Quotes on Education

12. Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it. – John D. Rockefeller

13. I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity. – John D. Rockefeller

14. I had no ambition to make a fortune. Mere money-making has never been my goal, I had an ambition to build. – John D. Rockefeller

15. The person who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed; you must have a larger ambition. There is no mystery in business success. If you do each day’s task successfully, and stay faithfully within these natural operations of commercial laws which I talk so much about, and keep your head clear, you will come out all right. – John D. Rockefeller

16. Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty. – John D. Rockefeller

17. I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts. – John D. Rockefeller

18. If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it. – John D. Rockefeller

19. A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds. – John D. Rockefeller

20. A man’s wealth must be determined by the relation of his desires and expenditures to his income. If he feels rich on ten dollars, and has everything else he desires, he really is rich. – John D. Rockefeller

21. Do not many of us who fail to achieve big things … fail because we lack concentration — the art of concentrating the mind on the thing to be done at the proper time and to the exclusion of everything else? – John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller Quotes on Money

22. Do you know what would hurt grandfather a great deal? To know that any of you boys should become wasteful, extravagant, careless with his money. – John D. Rockefeller

23. God gave me my money. – John D. Rockefeller

24. I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure. – John D. Rockefeller

25. Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people. – John D. Rockefeller

26. A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship. – John D. Rockefeller

27. Competition is a sin. – John D. Rockefeller

28. I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure – John D. Rockefeller

29. The most important thing for a young man is to establish credit – a reputation and character.” – John D. Rockefeller

30. The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets – John D. Rockefeller

31. The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?” – John D. Rockefeller

32. The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun. – John D. Rockefeller

33. I believe that the power to make money is a gift from God. – John D. Rockefeller

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John D. Rockefeller Quotes to broaden your thoughts

34. Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing. – John D. Rockefeller

35. When work goes out of style we may expect to see civilization totter and fall. – John D. Rockefeller

36. 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. – John D. Rockefeller

37. There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; Nothing that can satisfy but Christ. – John D. Rockefeller

38. I have ways of making money that you know nothing of. – John D. Rockefeller

39. After it is all over, the religion of man is his most important possession. – John D. Rockefeller

40. The success of each is dependent upon the success of the other. – John D. Rockefeller

41. Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege. – John D. Rockefeller

42. I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can and will triumph over might – John D. Rockefeller

43. I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man’s word should be as good as his bond; that character — not wealth or power or position — is of supreme worth.” – John D. Rockefeller

44. The American Beauty Rose can be produced in the splendor and fragrance which bring cheer to its beholder only by sacrificing the early buds which grow up around it. This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working-out of a law of nature and a law of God. – John D. Rockefeller

45. If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.  – John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller Quotes about success and life

46. “Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed” – John D. Rockefeller

47. “The secret to success is to do the common things uncommonly well.”― John D. Rockefeller

48. “Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.”― John D. Rockefeller

49. “It is very important to remember what other people tell you, not so much what you yourself already know.”― John D. Rockefeller

50. “A man has no right to occupy another man’s time unnecessarily”― John D. Rockefeller

51. “Own nothing, control everything.” – John D. Rockefeller

52. “The road to happiness lies in two simple principles; find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it put your whole soul into it every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have.” – John D. Rockefeller

53. “I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living, but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.” – John D. Rockefeller

54. “Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do work of superior people.” – John D. Rockefeller

55. “Our cup will truly run over only after we have sealed the character cracks.” – John D. Rockefeller

John D Rockefeller Quotes to inspire and teach

56. “It is one thing to stand on the comfortable ground of placid inaction and put forth words of cynical wisdom, and another to plunge into the work itself and through strenuous experience earn the right to express strong conclusions.”― John D. Rockefeller

57. “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”― John D. Rockefeller

58. “The major fortunes in America have been made in land.” – John D. Rockefeller

59. “Nobody does anything if he can get anybody else to do it.”― John D. Rockefeller

60. “How much money does it take to make a man happy? Just one more dollar.” – John D. Rockefeller

61. “The only thing which is of lasting benefit to a man is that which he does for himself. Money which comes to him without effort on his part is seldom a benefit and often a curse.” – John D. Rockefeller

62. “The common denominator for success is work.” – John D. Rockefeller

63. “I believe that it is my duty to make money and use it for the benefit of my neighbors. This is what my conscience tells me.” – John D. Rockefeller

64. “I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.”― John D. Rockefeller

65. “He who works all day has no time to make money.” – John D. Rockefeller

More John D Rockefeller quotes and sayings

66. “The man will be most successful who confers the greatest service on the world.” – John D. Rockefeller

67. “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.” – John D. Rockefeller

68. “The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money.” – John D. Rockefeller

69. “It has always been my rule in business to make everything count.” –
John D. Rockefeller

70. “Oh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life.” – John D. Rockefeller

71. “A friendship built on business can be glorious, while a business built on friendship can be murder.” – John D. Rockefeller

72. “Get rich by taking something common and making it uncommon.” – John D. Rockefeller

73. “I believe the power to make money is a gift of God.” – John D. Rockefeller

74. “Save when you can and not when you have to.” – John D. Rockefeller

75. “Long ago I lost the joy in living. The only joy I have is in my giving.” –
John D. Rockefeller

76. “I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.” – John D. Rockefeller

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