A biography for J. Paul Gettyhasn’t been written yet.
“My wealth is not a subject I relish discussing.”
“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.”
“Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience.”
“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.”
“There is obviously something wrong with our educational system. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that there might even be something wrong with at least some of our schoolteachers. But heaven help anyone daring to express such heretical views.”
“Nostalgia often leads to idle speculation.”
“What I learned at Oxford has been used to great advantage throughout my business career.”
“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.”
“Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.”
“If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.”
“In Japan, I was immensely impressed by the politeness, industrious nature and conscientiousness of the Japanese people.”
“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.”
“If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars.”
“Control of a company does not carry with it the ability to control the price of its stock.”
“A hatred of failure has always been part of my nature.”
“Jack Dempsey and I became friends in the very early 1920s.”
“There are at least 50 cities in the world that would have liked to obtain the Getty Collection.”
“Governments, of course, can - and do - soak the rich.”