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

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

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

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

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

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

“Five wives can't all be wrong.”

“Formula for success: rise early, work hard, 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?”

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

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

“I buy when other people are selling.”

“I can afford to say what I wish.”

“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.”

“I have absolutely no intention of marrying Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.”

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“If you owe the bank USD100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank USD100 million, that's the bank's problem.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“My wealth is not a subject I relish discussing.”

“My yachts were, I suppose, outstanding status symbols.”

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

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

“Nostalgia often leads to idle speculation.”

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

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

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

“The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“You cannot bring about prosperity without discouraging thrift.”

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