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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

My yachts were, I suppose, outstanding status symbols.

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.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Well, after I had the heart attack, it was a very simple choice. What the doctor told me I did and I did it religiously. I ate nothing but lean turkey breast or chicken breast or a piece of fish that was very lean. I mean I stayed away from everything.

From now on it is only through a conscious choice and through a deliberate policy that humanity can survive.

We believe that the European Union is facing a truly historic choice.

If you're a sports fan you realize that when you meet somebody, like a girlfriend, they kind of have to root for your team. They don't have a choice.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it's a continuing choice.

To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.

We in this Congress have a choice. The American people have a right to exercise a choice on this issue, as to whether our men and women will continue to fight and die in a war based on deception and fantasy, or to start bringing the troops home.

The choice is between which mistake is easier to correct: underdoing it or overdoing it.

A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.