A man cannot expect to progress without thinking. Take prosperity. A truly prosperous time is when the largest number of people are getting all they can legitimately eat and wear, and are in every sense of the word comfortable.
 Henry Ford, My Life and Work (1922). copy citation

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Author Henry Ford
Source My Life and Work
Topic progress prosperity
Date 1922
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7213/pg7213-images.html

Context

“of the workers receive above the minimum. The six dollars is not a flat but a minimum wage. Consider first the fundamentals of prosperity. Progress is not made by pulling off a series of stunts. Each step has to be regulated. A man cannot expect to progress without thinking. Take prosperity. A truly prosperous time is when the largest number of people are getting all they can legitimately eat and wear, and are in every sense of the word comfortable. It is the degree of the comfort of the people at large—not the size of the manufacturer's bank balance—that evidences prosperity. The function of the manufacturer is to contribute to this comfort. He is an instrument of society and he can serve society only as he manages his enterprises so as to turn over to the public an increasingly better product at an ever-decreasing price, and at the same time to pay to all those who have a hand in his business an ever-increasing wage, based upon the work they do.” source