Felix Dennis quotes: here are some hard-hitting truths from the late English publisher, poet, author, and philanthropist, Felix Dennis.
“Anyone not busy learning is busy dying.”
“Whatever qualities the rich may have, they can be acquired by anyone with the tenacity to become rich. The key, I think, is confidence. Confidence and an unshakable belief it can be done and that you are the one to do it.”
“Unless you are completely retired, earning money is the best form of wealth preservation.”
“Making money is certainly the one addiction I cannot shake.”
“Rich people always have a certain degree of debt. Apparently it helps to reduce taxes. I’m not so hot on the bean-counting side.”
“If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game, you will never be rich.”
“It’s kind of a crazy thing to decide that you’re going to be worth tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars and set out to do that. It doesn’t suit everybody.”
“People who grow rich almost always improve their sex life. More people want to have sex with them. That’s just the way human beings work. Money did not make me happy. But it definitely improved my sex life.”
“I couldn’t care less what anyone’s perception of me is. I’m too long in the tooth to care.”
“If it flies, floats, or fornicates, always rent it. It’s cheaper in the long run.”
“The bottom line is that if I did it, you can do it. I got rich without the benefits of a college education or a penny of capital. I made many errors along the way. I went from being a pauper – a hippie dropout on the dole, living in a crummy room without the proverbial pot to piss in, without even the money to pay the rent, without a clue as to what to do next – to being rich.”
“For me, temptation is life and I have a gargantuan appetite for everything.”
“The reason I don’t carry a mobile phone is I don’t want people to know where I am!”
“It’s very difficult to be continuously charitable in a capitalistic society. You’ve also got to make sure that you can pay everyone who works for you.”
“I have an over-attachment to precision, which is why I’ve sold more magazines than any man alive.”
“You have to persuade yourself that you absolutely don’t care what happens. If you don’t care, you’ve won. I absolutely promise you, in every serious negotiation, the man or woman who doesn’t care is going to win.”
“What is negotiation but the accumulation of small lies leading to an advantage?”
“Believing your own bullsh*t is always a perilous activity, but never more fatal than for the owner of a startup venture.”
“If you cannot face up to your fear of failure, you will never be rich.”
“Laugh at fear and tell it to take a hike. Smash it in the teeth. Spit on it. Put your arms around it and make nicey-nicey. Then slip a sharp blade into its stinking throat just as you’re French kissing it.”
“Too many people want to make a blockbuster movie and live in Beverly Hills. Not enough people want to dig holes.”
“You’ll never get rich by working for your boss.”
“You’ve got to be absolutely determined to get wealthy and do anything within the law to do so. If you do believe that, truly, and if you are born into a Western democracy, then nothing on this earth can stop you.”
““Money is power. Power is an aphrodisiac.”
“You’re bound to fail sometimes. It’s a 100% certainty. You’ve just got to ignore the fact that some people will laugh at you. It makes them feel better that they haven’t even tried.”
“Do not be shy to call customers who owe you money. It works.”
“Stamina is crucial, as is the capacity to work so hard that your best friends mock you, your lovers despair, and your rivals and acquaintances watch furtively from the sidelines, half in awe and half in contempt.”
“The richer you are and the more financial advisors you employ, the less likelihood there is that you can ever discover what you are really worth.”
“Having a great idea is simply not enough. It is how ideas are implemented that counts in the long run.”
“Most of the worst errors I made in my life came from forgetting to act small.”
“Few things in life are certain except death and being taxed.”
“I think having a great idea is vastly overrated. I know it sounds kind of crazy and counterintuitive. I don’t think it matters what the idea is, almost. You need great execution.”
“It’s a long, slow sunset for ink-on-paper magazines, but sunsets can produce vast sums of money.”
“The best thing about being immensely wealthy is not having to be in any particular place at any particular time doing a particular task you don’t want to do.”
“Nobody could like Donald Trump, surely, except his mother. No one really likes The Donald.”
“Sometimes, to ensure that a talented individual will work for you, or will stay working with you, you need to be flexible. Money is not always the great motivator here. Talented people want a good salary, of course, but surprisingly often they are more attracted to new opportunities and challenges.”
“An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay is not risk-taking.”
“If you chase money desperately in the earnest belief that you can never be happy without it and seriously think that the chase is a meaningful occupation, I doubt very much you will succeed. You have to be fiercely determined, true. But an appreciation of the absurdity of the chase helps enormously.”
“I once made a half a million by selling a magazine I had not even published yet to a rival. Half a million pounds for a day’s work. And why? Why? Why? Because I owned it. I owned it all.”
“Getting rich all comes down to ownership. Every single percentage point counts. You don’t need to start handing out shares like Sweeties, because it will come back to haunt you. In the end, you’re going to get your money from the sale of an asset. The less of that asset you own, the less money you will get. It is as brutal and as simple as that.”
If you found Felix Dennis’s quotes helpful, I highly recommend reading his book How to Get Rich for even more context.
