J. Paul Getty Quotes & Sayings

I would rather receive one percent of the income of 100 men, than 100% of the income of one man. — J. Paul Getty

Buy when everyone else is selling and hold until everyone else is buying. That's not just a catchy slogan. It's the very essence of successful investing. — J. Paul Getty

A marriage contract to me is as binding as any in business, and I have always believed in sticking to an agreement. — J. Paul Getty

Going to work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going sixty miles an hour or is the train going sixty miles an hour and you're just sitting still? — J. Paul Getty

There are no safeguards that can protect the emotional investor from himself. — J. Paul Getty

You cannot further the Brotherhood of Man by encouraging class hatred. — J. Paul Getty

My yachts were, I suppose, outstanding status symbols. — J. Paul Getty

A lasting relationship with a woman is only possible if you are a business failure, — J. Paul Getty

The rich are not born sceptical or cynical. They are made that way by events, circumstances. — J. Paul Getty

My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil. — J. Paul Getty

Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves. — J. Paul Getty

Money isn't everything but it sure keeps you in touch with your children. — J. Paul Getty

It has always been my contention that an individual who can be relied upon to be himself and to be honest unto himself can be relied upon in every other way. — J. Paul Getty

I have never been given to envy - save for the envy I feel toward those people who have the ability to make a marriage work and endure happily. — J. Paul Getty

I vehemently deny that I was born a cynic and a pessimist. — J. Paul Getty

If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem. — J. Paul Getty

In Japan, I was immensely impressed by the politeness, industrious nature and conscientiousness of the Japanese people. — J. Paul Getty

I was brought up in an era when thrift was still considered a virtue. — J. Paul Getty

In my own opinion, the average American's cultural shortcomings can be likened to those of the educated barbarians of ancient Rome. These were barbarians who learned to speak--and often to read and write--Latin. They acquired Roman habits of dress and deportment. Many of them handily mastered Roman commercial, engineering and military techniques--but they remained barbarians nonetheless. They failed to develop any understanding, appreciation or love for the art and culture of the great civilization around them. — J. Paul Getty

The #1 guideline to success is you must be in business for yourself. When you work for someone else, you sell your time at wholesale to your employer, who then re-sells it at retail to the customer. — J. Paul Getty

The employer generally gets the employees he deserves. — J. Paul Getty

I buy when other people are selling. — J. Paul Getty

I hate to be a failure. I hate and regret the failure of my marriages. I would gladly give all my millions for just one lasting marital success. — J. Paul Getty

Some people find oil. Others don't. — J. Paul Getty

If you look after the pennies, the dollars will look after themselves. — J. Paul Getty

Nostalgia often leads to idle speculation. — J. Paul Getty

Today's dissenters mainly focus their attention and expend their energies on the most inconsequential of trivia ... Allegedly serious intellectuals quibble endlessly over such ridiculous trivialities ... In the meantime, the public is lulled into a perilous somnolence, spoon-fed pap, and palpable untruths, many of which are turned out by special-interest and pressure groups and well organized propaganda machines. — J. Paul Getty

Age doesn't matter, unless you are cheese. — J. Paul Getty

You cannot bring about prosperity without discouraging thrift. — J. Paul Getty

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars. — J. Paul Getty

Jack Dempsey and I became friends in the very early 1920s. — J. Paul Getty

I have absolutely no intention of marrying Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. — J. Paul Getty

I can afford to say what I wish. — J. Paul Getty

The overwhelming majority of my rated wealth consists of investments in companies that produce goods and services. — J. Paul Getty

I am - and have always been - a Methodist. — J. Paul Getty

There is obviously something wrong with our educational system. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that there might even be something wrong with at least some of our schoolteachers. But heaven help anyone daring to express such heretical views. — J. Paul Getty

In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy. — J. Paul Getty

The Roaring Twenties were the period of that Great American Prosperity which was built on shaky foundations. — J. Paul Getty

To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business. — J. Paul Getty

I have no complex about wealth. I have worked very hard for my money; producing things people need. — J. Paul Getty

In business, as in politics, it is never easy to go against the beliefs and attitudes held by the majority. The businessman who moves counter to the tide of prevailing opinion must expect to be obstructed, derided and damned. — J. Paul Getty

What I learned at Oxford has been used to great advantage throughout my business career. — J. Paul Getty

Remember, a billion dollars isn't worth what it used to be. — J. Paul Getty

There is, however, hope for any person who wants to remain an individual. He can assert himself and refuse to conform. He'll be on his own, that's true, but while he will not have the security enjoyed by those who do conform, there will be no limits to what he may achieve. — J. Paul Getty

In some respects, a society in which the members reach a universal level in which they are anonymous drones by choice is even more frightening than one in which they are forced to be so against their will. When human beings relinquish their individuality and identity of their own volition, they are also relinquishing their claim to being human. — J. Paul Getty

Wealth is only a benefit of the game of money. If you win, the money will be there. — J. Paul Getty

People who don't respect money don't have any. — J. Paul Getty

Men of means look at making money as a game which they love to play. — J. Paul Getty

Once you have made it, you will understand that any business is limited in the challenges it offers. You will want and need other games to play, so you will look for other ventures to hold your interest. — J. Paul Getty

Whether we like it or not, men and women are not the same in nature, temperament, emotions and emotional responses. — J. Paul Getty

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor. — J. Paul Getty

It shouldn't be very difficult for anyone to resist the temptation to force himself into the pattern of the structured man. One needs only to remember that a groove may be safe--but that, as one wears away at it, the groove becomes first a rut and finally a grave. — J. Paul Getty

Nationalized industries are notorious for their inability to operate at a profit. — J. Paul Getty

There are at least 50 cities in the world that would have liked to obtain the Getty Collection. — J. Paul Getty

The majority is by no means omniscient just because it is the majority. In fact, I've found that the line which divides majority opinion from mass hysteria is often so fine as to be virtually invisible. — J. Paul Getty

I was 37 when my father died-and I no longer had any freedom of choice over what I would do with the rest of my life. — J. Paul Getty

A hatred of failure has always been part of my nature. — J. Paul Getty

My wealth is not a subject I relish discussing. — J. Paul Getty

The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights. — J. Paul Getty

Oil is like a wild animal. Whoever captures it has it. — J. Paul Getty

I find all this money a considerable burden. — J. Paul Getty

There may be some substitute for hard facts, but if there is, I have no idea what it can be. — J. Paul Getty

There are always opportunities through which businessmen can profit handsomely if they will only recognize and seize them. — J. Paul Getty

I am neither a homosexual nor a eunuch, nor have I ever taken any vows of chastity. — J. Paul Getty

My love of fine art increased - the more of it I saw, the more of it I wanted to see. — J. Paul Getty

There are heads of royal families who control hereditary fortunes that defy comprehension. — J. Paul Getty

Control of a company does not carry with it the ability to control the price of its stock. — J. Paul Getty

My evanescent anarchistic tendencies are purely classical. I use the word anarchist in the sense in which it was understood by the ancient Greeks. They, of course, accepted the anarchist as a fairly respectable--if somewhat vehement--opponent of government encroachment on the individual's rights to think and act freely. It is in this sense that I glimpse myself as an anarchist--regretting the growth of government and the ever-increasing trend toward regulation and, worst of all, standardization of human activity. — J. Paul Getty

In my opinion, an individual without any love of the arts cannot be considered completely civilized. — J. Paul Getty

You must not only learn to live with tension, you must seek it out. You must learn to thrive on stress. — J. Paul Getty

Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying. — J. Paul Getty

Governments, of course, can - and do - soak the rich. — J. Paul Getty

The conformist is not born. He is made. I believe the brainwashing process begins in the schools and colleges. — J. Paul Getty

There is only one way to make a great deal of money; and that is in a business of your own. — J. Paul Getty

How does one measure the success of a museum? — J. Paul Getty

You must take risks, both with your own money or with borrowed money. Risk taking is essential to business growth. — J. Paul Getty

You must never try to make all the money that's in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won't have many deals. — J. Paul Getty

If you can actually count your money, then you're not a rich man. — J. Paul Getty

Some of our newspapers and magazines are more concerned with the welfare of their advertisers than they are with the dissemination of news and the discussion of matters of lasting importance ... Radio, television, motion pictures, popular books - all contribute ... to ... the stifling of dissent on all but the most banal levels ... a renunciation of the most basic and precious of democratic principles. — J. Paul Getty

The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him-and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires. — J. Paul Getty

No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or 'get rich' in business by being a conformist. — J. Paul Getty

Getting results through people is a skill that cannot be learned in the classroom. — J. Paul Getty

Build wealth as a by product of your business success. If wealth is your only objective in business, you will probably fail. — J. Paul Getty

A man can fail, but he isn't a failure until he blames someone else. — J. Paul Getty

Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience. — J. Paul Getty

The key to wealth is to learn how to make money while you sleep — J. Paul Getty

There are one hundred men seeking security to one able man who is willing to risk his fortune. — J. Paul Getty

The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips. — J. Paul Getty

Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells. — J. Paul Getty

A sense of thrift is essential to success in business. The businessman must discipline himself to practice economy whenever possible, in his personal life as well as his business affairs. — J. Paul Getty

During the 1950s, Aristotle Onassis and I formed what grew to be a close friendship and association in several business ventures. — J. Paul Getty

Before marriage, many couples are very much like people rushing to catch an airplane; once aboard, they turn into passengers. They just sit there. — J. Paul Getty

Americans ... automatically equate dissension with disloyalty. They view any criticism of our existing social, economic, and political forms, as sedition and subversion ... (" The growing reluctance of Americans to criticize, and their increasing tendency to condemn those who, in ever dwindling numbers, will still voice dissent") is disturbing, deplorable, and truly dangerous. — J. Paul Getty

Five wives can't all be wrong. — J. Paul Getty

I've never been one to bet on the weather. — J. Paul Getty

To build wealth today, you must be in your own business. — J. Paul Getty

Money is like manure, you don't have to spread it around, you can just sell it to Potash Corp as fertilizer. — J. Paul Getty

I'd rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort. — J. Paul Getty

I take pride in the creation of my wealth, in its existence and in the uses to which it has been and is being put. — J. Paul Getty