Top 90 John D. Rockefeller Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Success Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Success, Powerful Motivational Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Work, Choices Quotes

2. “If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Startup Quotes, Quotes About Money

3. “The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.”

— John D. Rockefeller

4. “Own nothing, control everything.”

— John D. Rockefeller

5. “I believe the power to make money is a gift of God.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Prosperity Quotes, Inspirational Business Quotes, Quotes About Money, Making Money Quotes

6. “I would rather earn 1% off a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts.”

— John D. Rockefeller

7. “Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed.”

— John D. Rockefeller

8. “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.”

— John D. Rockefeller

9. “The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Quotes About Money, Risk-Taking Quotes, Value Investing Principles

10. “I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Adaptability Quotes

11. “I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Persistence Quotes, Dedication Quotes, Resilience Quotes, Grit Quotes

12. “If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.”

— John D. Rockefeller

13. “The secret of success is to get up early, work late and strike oil.”

— John D. Rockefeller

14. “How much money does it take to make a man happy? Just one more dollar.”

— John D. Rockefeller

15. “Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Prosperity Quotes, Wealth Quotes, Quotes About Money

16. “I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Financial Success Quotes, Quotes About Giving

17. “The man who starts out simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed, you must have a larger ambition.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Wealth Quotes

18. “There is no feeling in this world to be compared with self-reliance – do not sacrifice that to anything else.”

— John D. Rockefeller

19. “Save when you can and not when you have to.”

— John D. Rockefeller

20. “Homeopathy is a progressive and aggressive step in medicine.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Medicine Quotes

21. “Competition is a sin.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Competition Quotes

22. “Oh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life.”

— John D. Rockefeller

23. “I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything.”

— John D. Rockefeller

24. “Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Reputation Quotes

25. “The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Wealth Quotes

26. “Get rich by taking something common and making it uncommon.”

— John D. Rockefeller

27. “Character – not wealth, power, or position – is the supreme word.”

— John D. Rockefeller

28. “Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Accountability Quotes, Duty Quotes

29. “God gave me my money.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Financial Success Quotes

30. “Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.”

— John D. Rockefeller

31. “Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”

— John D. Rockefeller

32. “I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

— John D. Rockefeller

33. “The common denominator for success is work.”

— John D. Rockefeller

34. “Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege.”

— John D. Rockefeller

35. “I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.”

— John D. Rockefeller

36. “The person with big talk and big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts. I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.”

— John D. Rockefeller

37. “Giving is the secret to a healthy life. Not necessarily money, but whatever a person has to give of encouragement, sympathy, and understanding.”

— John D. Rockefeller

38. “I had no ambition to make a fortune. Mere money-making has never been my goal, I had an ambition to build.”

— John D. Rockefeller

39. “Giving should be entered into in just the same way as investing. Giving is investing.”

— John D. Rockefeller

Featured in: Wealth Quotes, Quotes About Giving, Investing Quotes

40. “Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.”

— John D. Rockefeller

41. “The best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities-a search for a cause, an attempt to cure evils at their source.”

— John D. Rockefeller

42. “There is nothing in this world that can compare with the Christian fellowship; nothing that can satisfy but Christ.”

— John D. Rockefeller

43. “Never lose interest in life and the world. Never allow yourself to become annoyed.”

— John D. Rockefeller

44. “The major fortunes in America have been made in land.”

— John D. Rockefeller

45. “A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.”

— John D. Rockefeller

46. “I never placed my head upon the pillow at night without reminding myself that my success might only be temporary.”

— John D. Rockefeller

47. “I have made many millions but they have brought me no happiness.”

— John D. Rockefeller

48. “A man has no right to occupy another man’s time unnecessarily.”

— John D. Rockefeller

49. “I have ways of making money that you know nothing of.”

— John D. Rockefeller

50. “The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?”

— John D. Rockefeller