Henry Ford citations
Page 3

Henry Ford est un industriel de la première moitié du XXe siècle et le fondateur du constructeur automobile Ford. Son nom est notamment attaché au fordisme, une méthode industrielle alliant un mode de production en série fondé sur le principe de ligne d’assemblage et un modèle économique ayant recours à des salaires élevés. La mise en place de cette méthode au début des années 1910 révolutionne l’industrie américaine en favorisant une consommation de masse et lui permet de produire à plus de 16 millions d’exemplaires la Ford T ; il devient alors l’une des personnes les plus riches et les plus connues au monde.

Ford a une vision globale de son action : il voit dans la consommation la clé de la paix. Son important engagement à réduire les coûts aboutit à de nombreuses innovations techniques mais également commerciales ; il met ainsi en place tout un système de franchises qui installe une concession Ford dans toutes les villes en Amérique du Nord et dans les grandes villes des six continents. La Fondation Ford hérite de la majeure partie de la fortune de Ford, mais l’industriel veille néanmoins à ce que sa famille en conserve le contrôle de façon permanente. D’ailleurs, il assumera très longtemps le poste de président de la Ford Motor Company. Dans les années 1930, Ford se constitue, selon l'expression du New York Times, « la plus importante troupe militaire privée du monde ». Il s'associe à la pègre de Détroit notamment afin de recruter des mercenaires capables d'intimider les syndicalistes et de mener des actions punitives contre les ouvriers grévistes.

Le diplôme de docteur en ingénierie lui est délivré par l’Université du Michigan et le collège de l’État du Michigan et il reçoit par ailleurs un LL.D. honoraire de l’Université de Colgate. En collaboration avec Samuel Crowther, il écrit My Life, and Work , Today and Tomorrow et Moving Forward qui décrivent le développement de son entreprise et expose ses théories sociales et industrielles. Son nom est également associé au livre The International Jew ainsi qu’au journal The Dearborn Independent, ce qui lui vaudra de nombreuses controverses concernant son antisémitisme et ses liens avec le régime nazi, certains voyant en lui l'un des maîtres à penser de Hitler. Wikipedia  

✵ 30. juillet 1863 – 7. avril 1947
Henry Ford photo
Henry Ford: 82   citations 0   J'aime

Henry Ford Citations

“Vous pouvez choisir la couleur que vous voulez, à condition que ce soit le noir.”

Henry Ford (à propos de la Ford T )

Henry Ford: Citations en anglais

“We have only started on our development of our country — we have not as yet, with all our talk of wonderful progress, done more than scratch the surface. The progress has been wonderful enough — but when we compare what we have done with what there is to do, then our past accomplishments are as nothing. When we consider that more power is used merely in ploughing the soil than is used in all the industrial establishments of the country put together, an inkling comes of how much opportunity there b ahead. And now, with so many countries of the world in ferment and with so much unrest everywhere, is an excellent time to suggest something of the things that may be done — in the light of what has been done.
When one speaks of increasing power, machinery, and industry there comes up a picture of a cold, metallic sort of world in which great factories will drive away the trees, the flowers, the birds, and the green fields. And that then we shall have a world composed of metal machines and human machines. With all of that I do not agree. I think that unless we know more about machines and their use, unless we better understand the mechanical portion of life, we cannot have the time to enjoy the trees, and the birds, and the flowers, and the green fields.”

Henry Ford livre My Life and Work

Source: My Life and Work (1922), p. 1; as cited in: William A. Levinson, Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther. The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work: Henry Ford's Universal Code for World-Class Success. CRC Press, 2013. p. xxvii

“When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat.”

As quoted in Alfa Romeo. I creatori della Leggenda (1990) by Griffith Borgeson
Attributed from posthumous publications
Variante: When I see an Alfa Romeo, I tip my hat.

“There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years.”

As quoted in Biopolymers, Polyamides and Complex Proteinaceous Materials I (2003) by Stephen R. Fahnestock, Alexander Steinbüchel, p. 395
Attributed from posthumous publications

“The average man won't really do a day's work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work to do if people would do it.”

Quoted in The Zanesville Sunday Times-Signal [Zanesville, Ohio] (15 March 1931): On reasons for the Great Depression

“Money doesn't change men. It merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish, or arrogant, or greedy, the money brings it out; that's all.”

Interview with Bruce Barton, "It Would Be Fun To Start Over Again," The American Magazine, April 1921

“Variant: If the American people knew the corruption in our money system there would be revolution before morning.”

Attributed to Henry Ford by Charles Binderup (March 19, 1937), Congressional Record—House vol. 81, p. 2528. The quote is preceded by "It was Henry Ford who said, in substance, this," indicating that it was a paraphrase rather than an actual quote. Ford wrote at length in My Life and Work (1923) against the dominance of finance over industry, including a remark in Chapter XII, quoted above, which is very similar to the attributed statement.
Misattributed

“What we need is some financial engineers.”

Saturday Evening Post, Feb. 11, 1936

“He draws upon his subconscious mind.”

Thomas Edison, as quoted in The Living Age, Vol. 312 (1922), p. 742

“History is bunk. What difference does it make how many times the ancient Greeks flew their kites?”

History is Bunk, Says Henry Ford, Special to The New York Times, New York Times, October October 29, 1921. p. 1

“Bankers play far too great a part in the conduct of industry...”

Henry Ford livre My Life and Work

Source: My Life and Work (1922), Chapter XII, Money - Master or Servant

“Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail.”

Henry Ford livre My Life and Work

Source: 1920s, My Life and Work (1922), pp. 19–20. Quoted in Samuel Crowther, "Henry Ford's Problem," The Magazine of Business, vol. 52 (1927), p. 182

Auteurs similaires

Richard Bach photo
Richard Bach 8
écrivain américain
Kurt Vonnegut photo
Kurt Vonnegut 29
écrivain américain
Jack London photo
Jack London 12
écrivain américain
John Steinbeck photo
John Steinbeck 18
écrivain américain
Maya Angelou photo
Maya Angelou 4
poétesse, actrice et militante américaine
Richard Feynman photo
Richard Feynman 5
physicien américain
Jack Kerouac photo
Jack Kerouac 11
écrivain et poète américain
Ray Bradbury photo
Ray Bradbury 20
écrivain américain
Francis Scott Fitzgerald photo
Francis Scott Fitzgerald 18
écrivain américain