Henry Ford is an enigma to most people today. With the decline of Motor City and abundance of American made cars he has faded away into little but with historical tidbits and schools named after him. What few realize about Ford was his homegrown roots that led many decisions towards people’s needs and community’s needs instead of individual prosperity. What he actually did for the country was set about a shift in leadership and modern thinking.
Slightly Anti-Semitic, patriotic American, worshipper of the farmer and rural living, and ever the industrialist The Quotable Henry Ford reads like your senile grandfather at time and then turns a 180 to ideas and remarks that are quite notable.
1. On Health
“Meat is not essential. It can be replaced with a scientifically manufactured substitute.”
“Most of us eat too much. We eat the wrong kind of food at the wrong time and ultimately suffer for it.”
“The three errors of diet are eating too little, eating too much, and eating the wrong things. Moderation in food, however takes the edge off all three errors.”
2. The City Life
“The city takes its food from grocery shelves and its opinions from minds too busy to think.”
On Success
“We want to write the word ‘success’ too soon. It should be kept for the epitaph.”
“The world is full of greatness that we never hear of.”
3. On Energy
“Water power is the cheapest, the most efficient, and the least wasteful of all types of power.”
“I predict–mind you, this is only a prediction–that in a time not far off, we will not think of using coal for fuel.”
“Every so often we are told that the supply of petroleum can last a few years…[W]henever a shortage in any commodity develops[,] a new and better substitute will be found for it.”
4. On Detroit
“A lot of people are staying in Detroit for the same reason that some people like to stay at home–that is where they eat.”
“They were raising a million dollars to advertise Detroit and bring more people here. I told them the money would be better spent to educate people how to get away from the city.”