Jon Huntsman, Sr. Quotes

Never quit believing that you can develop in life. Never give up. Don't deny the inward spirit that provides the drive to accomplish great things in life.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I had the good fortune to be raised in the 1940s and the 1950s. As I entered business in the late 1950s and 1960s, America was just coming into its own as a great industrial power. It allowed young entrepreneurs to start their engines, to start their businesses, to borrow a little money and to leverage what they had.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

People who put money in the church basket and people who go to church and pay the pastor: that isn't real philanthropy; that's just like you belong to a country club. You pay your dues to belong to that church, so you pay your tithing or whatever it is.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Everyone has always underestimated a company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The New York boys thought they could take me on, that nobody out here has any knowledge or wisdom.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Our Heavenly Father expects the best from each of us. We must believe in ourselves. Don't give in when the going gets rough. You are laying the foundation of a great work, and that great work is your life.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

We should never have any political or religious organization filter our news.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Decide who you are and what your goals entail - then go for the roses. Life has little regard for those who waste time.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

As a senior in high school with no money working several jobs, I was sent to a wonderful school on the East Coast by a wonderful Jewish man. I've never forgotten that. I've sent over 5,000 young people to school around the world in memory of him because he was so gracious to me.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

In America today, unfortunately, the right wing has been totally commandeered by the Tea Party, and it's a bad thing for our party.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

If people are going to give, they're going to give. And it doesn't matter if you give a dollar or five dollars or a hundred dollars or a million dollars; it's all according to your ability.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

We're in business to relieve human suffering, to help feed the poor, to provide education and culture - but above all else, we're concerned with the relief of human suffering.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I desire to leave this world as I entered it - barefoot and broke.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I never have used computers or calculators. I've always been able to figure out in my head, far before my opposition has, in negotiating for acquisitions, where we need to be and where the numbers are and how we could get the best sight of the bargain, without having to resort to accountants or assistants or financial experts.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I was honored to start a small business and to borrow an enormous amount of money and to build piece upon piece, place upon place, building upon building and product upon product, throughout the United States and eventually Europe and facilities around the world.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

When I bought companies, it was done on trust, on a one-on-one basis, and with the intention of taking care of employees. Today, it's about who can bid the highest. There's no personal interest. It's a different world and one that an entrepreneur like me doesn't like much.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

All men and women need a roof over their heads and need to be fed and have proper health care. I don't know that I believed that, or even understood that, in the early days.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I think the history of the world suggests if one studies the Romans, and one studies the early Greeks, and one studies the history of the world, they all eventually falter if they don't come back to the basic aspect of integrity and honor and feelings of love one for another.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Self pity is the worst possible disease that can affect mankind. And if we do just the opposite, which is love, then we have God's feelings with us at all times.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I think corporations and people are very different. People make corporations whatever it is that they're going to be.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Sometimes in life, we try to do our very best to help others, and in the process, it brings some anguish to us. But we can't ever let that stop us. We can't ever be stopped from helping others and allowing them to have some sense of happiness and joy in their life.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I've always thought that people who left a great deal of money in their will never enjoyed the great honor and privilege and heart-rendering feeling of giving to others during their lifetime, because they were too selfish to give to others while they were alive, so they made sure they were dead and couldn't use it anymore.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

All I can say is Mike Lee is an embarrassment to the state of Utah. He's been a tremendous embarrassment to our family, to our state, to our country to have him as a U.S. senator.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I think our Founding Fathers, they would disagree, but they weren't disagreeable. They didn't hate each other; they didn't want to kill each other off.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Always make your team around you feel like you are succeeding, even though you know, way down deep, it's a long shot. You have to be the fighter and the leader and the one who instills energy and hope in others.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I'm the only one in America who belongs to the 'Cure Cancer' party, so if you give money to cancer, like Harry Reid and Max Baucus, some of these guys really helped us raise big money for cancer, I give them big money for their reelections.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

In my way of thinking, the world was my oyster, and there were thousands of products that could be developed.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Integrity is critical to our lives - and to our dreams of achievement. We must remember that without integrity, nothing else matters and that with integrity, nothing else matters.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I found that, academically, it really didn't matter whether I had received a certain grade in a class; it didn't matter too much what schools I wanted to attend... What matters is one's drive, one's intelligence.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

As a young man, I was a navy officer in Vietnam. I made $320 a month and would always give away $50 a month to a family I felt that was in greater need than me, in addition to my tithing to my church. I've just always felt in my heart, coming from a very humble background, that there are plenty of people who need a break in life.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

All I'm saying is that, you know, whether we're worth a billion, whether we're worth a million, whether we're worth $1,000, it's what's in your heart. You know, $100 a month from somebody or $50 a year for people who may be in a less economic bracket, that's as important to the Lord.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

If someone said, 'Jon, we need $250 million a year from now and we can make a dramatic breakthrough for ovarian cancer,' I'd have $250 million in two months. You just work day and night if the cause in your heart is justified.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I've had cancer four times. But you know, God has blessed me, and I feel so honored and so privileged in the blessings of life.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

True entrepreneurs have to really forego almost everything; they have to put it all on the line.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I have always given money away. I haven't always been wealthy - the opposite, in fact. But I have always felt that I wanted people to share it with me.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Why should someone who has $5 billion only give away $2.5 billion? They can't take it with them.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Being raised in Idaho, you think everyone is poor. Then you see the wider world.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I would say to you, have faith in yourself - believe in what you are doing, and, most important, be a person of integrity. It is totally up to you, and no one else, how your life evolves.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

You're in the game of life to fight. If you're in business, and you're not aggressively building, you shouldn't be in.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.

I love to give money away. I don't know if it makes my children and grandchildren all that happy.

- Jon Huntsman, Sr.