75+ Best John D. Rockefeller Quotes on Wealth & Success

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed, you must have a larger ambition.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Save when you can and not when you have to.

I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

Get rich by taking something common and making it uncommon.

The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?

I have made many millions but they have brought me no happiness.

How much money does it take to make a man happy? Just one more dollar.

I believe the power to make money is a gift of God.

Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.

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 major fortunes in America have been made in land.

I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.

The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit . . . a reputation, character.

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 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.

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

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

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

The common denominator for success is work.

Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.

The secret of success is to get up early, work late and strike oil.

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

I was afraid I could not stand my prosperity, and tried to teach myself not to get puffed up with any foolish notions.

Never, never sell yourself cheaply. Everyone is a product of his thoughts, thinking about small goals, will lead to small results. Thinking of great goals will win great success.

Don’t waste effort on a thing that ends in a petty triumph unless you are happy with a life of petty success.

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.

Oh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life.

There is no feeling in this world to be compared with self-reliance – do not sacrifice that to anything else.

It is only those efforts the man himself puts forth that can really help him.

Never lose interest in life and the world. Never allow yourself to become annoyed.

I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.

Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.

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.

A man has no right to occupy another man’s time unnecessarily.

Competition is a sin.

Nobody does anything if he can get anybody else to do it.

It is very important to remember what other people tell you, not so much what you yourself already know.

Many of the brightest kept their books in such a way that they did not actually know when they were making money on a certain operation and when they were losing.

Real efficiency in work comes from knowing your facts and building upon that sure foundation.

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.

Good old-fashioned common sense has always been a mighty rare commodity.

As I began my business life as a bookkeeper, I learned to have great respect for figures and facts, no matter how small they were.

The Standard has not now, and never did have a royal road to supremacy, nor is its success due to any one man, but to the multitude of able men who are working together.

To succeed in a business requires the best and most earnest men to manage it, and the best men rise to the top.

A business cannot be a great success that does not fully and efficiently accept and take advantage of its opportunities.

Much that one man cannot do alone two can do together.

It has always been our policy to hear patiently and discuss frankly until the last shred of evidence is on the table, before trying to reach a conclusion and to decide finally upon a course of action.

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.

Giving is the secret to a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a person has to give of encouragement, sympathy, and understanding.

Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege.

The best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities-a search for a cause, an attempt to cure evils at their source.

Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

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.

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

If a man has succeeded, he has brought upon himself corresponding responsibilities.

I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individual’s highest fulfillment, greatest happiness and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

The great economic era we are entering will give splendid opportunity to the young man of the future.

I am naturally an optimist.

God gave me my money.

In my young manhood we had everything to do and nothing to do it with.