T. Boone Pickens Quotes

“Natural gas is better distributed than any other fuel in the United States. It's down every street and up every alley. There's a pipeline.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“The cheapest natural gas in the world is in the United States.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“I think I have more patience now than I did in the past.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“I say, you work eight hours, and you sleep eight hours - be sure they're not the same eight hours.”

— T. Boone Pickens

Never Googled myself. I use a computer for market quotes and news, but I've never Googled myself. But I have visited their headquarters.

— T. Boone Pickens

“I don't like stock buybacks. I think if a company has the money to buy their stock back, then they should take that and increase the dividends. Send it back to the stockholder. Let them invest their money again from the dividends.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“Natural gas is a better transportation fuel than gasoline, so if that's the case, it's cheaper, it's cleaner and it's a domestic resource.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“There's no question that tar sands in Canada are probably the largest source of oil available to the U.S. over a long period of time. There's as much oil in the tar sands probably as there is in Saudi Arabia. The problem is, there's a huge capital requirement to develop that.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“I don't care whether you use natural gas, ethanol, the battery. You can use anything, just so it's American.”

— T. Boone Pickens

You want to compete, and you want to compete at the highest level.

— T. Boone Pickens

“Try everything. Do everything. Nuclear. Biomass. Coal. Solar. You name it. I support them all.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“Work eight hours and sleep eight hours and make sure that they are not the same hours.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“If you can provide the funding and you get the leadership, you'll have a competitive team.”

— T. Boone Pickens

I don't go cheap on anything, but I'm not a shopper. If I want something, I look at it, decide what it is, but it will usually be the best product. I've got a pair of loafers that I still wear that I got in 1957.

— T. Boone Pickens

“I was very fortunate in my gene mix. The gambling instincts I inherited from my father were matched by my mother's gift for analysis.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“In the history of America, we've never had an energy plan. We don't even realize the resources we have available to us.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“I always saw myself as a large stockholder trying to make a difference. I wasn't raiding anybody.”

— T. Boone Pickens

I have always believed that it's important to show a new look periodically. Predictability can lead to failure.

— T. Boone Pickens

“If somebody I don't like gets in the crosshairs, I pull the trigger. But I don't hunt for them.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“On a scale from 1-10, my ambition is probably 11 or 12.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“It's important to understand that oil and renewables do different things. Wind and solar are for power generation, so they don't replace oil. About 70% of all oil produced is used for transportation fuel. Renewables are good projects, but they don't get us off of foreign oil.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“We're going to have shortages and prices are going to go up. Gasoline is going to be extremely tight for us.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“I don't need any more money.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“When you look at a commodities market you need hedgers and speculators. If you don't have one, you don't have a market. That's how it works.”

— T. Boone Pickens

You give the money where you want it.

— T. Boone Pickens

“Chief executives, who themselves own few shares of their companies, have no more feeling for the average stockholder than they do for baboons in Africa.”

— T. Boone Pickens

I do believe that oil production globally has peaked at 85 million barrels. And I've been very vocal about it. And what happens? The demand continues to rise. The only way you can possibly kill demand is with price. So the price of oil, gasoline, has to go up to kill the demand. Otherwise, keep the price down, the demand rises.

— T. Boone Pickens

“I'm amused when Congress tries to place the blame on somebody but never themselves. I've never heard any of them ever say, 'I've made a mistake.' I do. I say I called it wrong. But they just try to find somebody to blame.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“You can't invest in natural gas on a daily basis. It's too volatile. But if you think of natural gas as a long-term holding, then you push your profit horizon out. A long-term time horizon would be at least two years.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“Far too many executives have become more concerned with the 'four P's' - pay, perks, power and prestige - rather than making profits for shareholders.”

— T. Boone Pickens

I don't believe in a price on carbon, because the government is going to control it and they're going to fail.

— T. Boone Pickens

“I never did anything dishonest.”

— T. Boone Pickens

I've been married over 50 years of my life.

— T. Boone Pickens

“The American people know something is wrong as far as energy is concerned. They don't think they are being told the truth.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“I don't think for a minute we went to Iraq for oil. It just so happened that it had oil. But I think we'll come out of the Iraqi situation with a call on their oil at market price.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“A plan without action is not a plan. It's a speech.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“Work hard. Come early, stay late. That's the way leadership has to approach it.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“The older I get, the more I see a straight path where I want to go. If you're going to hunt elephants, don't get off the trail for a rabbit.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“Given the current state of our finances, we could sure use a quarter of a trillion dollars a year recycling through the U.S. economy rather than through the economies of Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. Don't fall victim to what I call the 'ready-aim-aim-aim-aim syndrome'. You must be willing to fire.”

— T. Boone Pickens

A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan.

— T. Boone Pickens

“We are now spending half a trillion dollars on foreign oil, importing 62 percent of the oil we use, and we haven't had the leadership in D.C. to do anything about it. We've got to move to other sources of energy. But we've gotten way behind, and will continue to pay the fiddler. It's not a good future.”

— T. Boone Pickens

A dollar is not worth as much as you think it is. Your honesty is worth much more.

— T. Boone Pickens

“Don't get the idea that I've turned green. My business is making money, and I think this is going to make a lot of money.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“The first billion is a helluva lot harder.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“I know what people say, that water's a lot like air. Do you charge for air? Well, of course not. Well, you shouldn't charge for water. Okay, watch what happens you won't have any water”

— T. Boone Pickens

“Money is to be respected one of the worst things you can do is handle another person's money without respect for how hard it was to earn.”

— T. Boone Pickens

When you blow away the foam, you get down to the real stuff.

— T. Boone Pickens

“For decades, our dependence on OPEC oil has dictated our national security decisions and tied us up in the Middle East at an incredible price. We've spent more than $5 trillion and thousands of American soldiers have died securing Middle East oil.”

— T. Boone Pickens

“We've got all these politicians talking about better health care and what all, but believe me, we're not going to have the money to take care of sick people.. or anyone else as far as I'm concerned.. if we don't fix our energy problem right now. I've got an idea what to do. It might not be a perfect idea, but hell, none of my best ideas have been perfect.”

— T. Boone Pickens