Quotes from J. Paul Getty

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

You must not only learn to live with tension, you must seek it out. You must learn to thrive on stress.

Build wealth as a by product of your business success. If wealth is your only objective in business, you will probably fail.

A sense of thrift is essential to success in business. The businessman must discipline himself to practice economy whenever possible, in his personal life as well as his business affairs.

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.

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

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

Age doesn't matter, unless you are cheese.

I can afford to say what I wish.

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

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

You cannot bring about prosperity without discouraging thrift.

The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.

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

In my opinion, an individual without any love of the arts cannot be considered completely civilized.

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

Five wives can't all be wrong.

My yachts were, I suppose, outstanding status symbols.

Jack Dempsey and I became friends in the very early 1920s.

If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.

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

I am - and have always been - a Methodist.

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

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