J. Paul Getty Quotations

Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.

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

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

I can afford to say what I wish.

The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights.

You cannot further the Brotherhood of Man by encouraging class hatred.

A hatred of failure has always been part of my nature.

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

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.

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

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

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

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.

In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.

The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.

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

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

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

Oil is like a wild animal. Whoever captures it has it.

I am - and have always been - a Methodist.

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

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.

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

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

How does one measure the success of a museum?

There are heads of royal families who control hereditary fortunes that defy comprehension.

Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells.

My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil.

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?

I was brought up in an era when thrift was still considered a virtue.

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed.

Governments, of course, can - and do - soak the rich.

You cannot bring about prosperity without discouraging thrift.

My wealth is not a subject I relish discussing.

Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience.

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

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

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.

Jack Dempsey and I became friends in the very early 1920s.

I vehemently deny that I was born a cynic and a pessimist.

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.

I have always enjoyed the company of women and have formed deep and long-lasting friendships with many of them.

My yachts were, I suppose, outstanding status symbols.

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

Nationalized industries are notorious for their inability to operate at a profit.

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.

I've never been one to bet on the weather.

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

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

I have absolutely no intention of marrying Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

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

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

My father said: ''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.''

The weak shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights.

If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.

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

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

I find all this money a considerable burden.

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.

If you look after the pennies, the dollars will look after themselves.

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.

...The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavour. The beauty endures. A work of art lives...through the generations and centuries...

....remember, a billion dollars isn't worth what it used to be.

Some people find oil. Others don't.

If you get up early, work late, and pay your taxes, you will get ahead -- if you strike oil.

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

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

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

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.

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

Each [of my wives] was jealous and resentful of my preoccupation with business. Yet none showed any visible aversion to sharing in the proceeds.

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.

People who don't respect money don't have any.

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

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

There are no safeguards that can protect the emotional investor from himself.

I buy when other people are selling.

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

Getting results through people is a skill that cannot be learned in the classroom.

If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.

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.

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.

To build wealth today, you must be in your own business.

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

...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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Age doesn't matter, unless you are cheese.

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

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

The key to wealth is to learn how to make money while you sleep

A lasting relationship with a woman is only possible if you are a business failure,

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

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

The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit and must understand that practices are what create habits. 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.