Paul Getty

My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil.

How does one measure the success of a museum?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have absolutely no intention of marrying Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

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

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.

Nostalgia often leads to idle speculation.

Five wives can't all be wrong.

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

I am - and have always been - a Methodist.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

You cannot bring about prosperity without discouraging thrift.

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

I can afford to say what I wish.

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

Whether we like it or not, men and women are not the same in nature, temperament, emotions and emotional responses.

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

My yachts were, I suppose, outstanding status symbols.

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

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

In Japan, I was immensely impressed by the politeness, industrious nature and conscientiousness of the Japanese people.