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.

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

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

Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying.

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

The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips.

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've never been one to bet on the weather.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed.

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

The rich are not born sceptical or cynical. They are made that way by events, circumstances.

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

I am - and have always been - a Methodist.

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.

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

My wealth is not a subject I relish discussing.

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

How does one measure the success of a museum?

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

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

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

My yachts were, I suppose, outstanding status symbols.

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