Napoleon Hill Quotes
There would be no advantage to be gained by sowing a field of wheat if the harvest did not return more than was sown.
Hill, Napoleon. The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons. The Ralston University Press, 1928.
This quotation is historically important because it documents the radical change in agriculture that technology brought on. In this period it was steam power. There were steam powered tractors in addition to what he enumerated. The production cost and hence the prices of agricultural products became much lower increasing the standard of living for all consumers. However, the small farmer, without capitol and the scale of a large enough farm, was put in a position in that he could not compete with the major products of agriculture without huge investment in capital equipment and large enough farms. While many went out of business, many others shifted to specialized crops and raising animals where the automation was not as necessary. This process has been on going in American agriculture since the invention of mechanized farm implements, and the small farmer has gradually become more rare. But the process has been ongoing throughout American history.
Oliver Napoleon Hill was an American self-help author. He is known best for his book Think and Grow Rich (1937) which is among the 10 best selling self-help books of all time. Hill's works insisted that fervid expectations are essential to improving one's life. Most of his books were promoted as expounding principles to achieve "success".
