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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I have absolutely no intention of marrying Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You cannot bring about prosperity without discouraging thrift."

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

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

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

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

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

"How does one measure the success of a museum?"

"My wealth is not a subject I relish discussing."