Quote attributed to Henry Ford about customers wanting a faster horse

[Garson O'Toole]

If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse

Above is one version of a saying that is popularly attributed to the
automobile magnate Henry Ford. Last year I explored this quotation and
was unable to solidly connect it to Ford. The first instance crediting
Ford was dated 2001.

Interestingly, Henry Ford's grandson William Clay Ford Jr. used the
statement in 2006 and accepted the attribution.

Mentioning the desire for "faster horses" when criticizing the
misguided pursuit of incremental improvements in science and
technology has a longer history. There is a relevant citation 1930:

[QRBP] 1930 September, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Biological
Problems and Opinions by Edward J. v. K. Menge, Start Page 348, Quote
Page 351, Column 2, Volume 5, Number 3, The University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, Illinois. (JSTOR)

But merely extending knowledge a step further is not developing
science. Breeding homing pigeons that could cover a given space with
ever increasing rapidity did not give us the laws of telegraphy, nor
did breeding faster horses bring us the steam locomotive.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2808295

A few weeks ago I was asked to trace this saying, so I decided to post
a selected subset of citations at the Quote Investigator website:

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/07/28/ford-faster-horse/

If a list member can find and share an earlier attribution to Henry
Ford (or someone else) for the saying about customers that would be
great.

Garson

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