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

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

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

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

If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.
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 times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.
J. Paul Getty

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

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

The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.
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

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

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

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