quotations about business
The common question that gets asked in business is, why? That's a good question, but an equally valid question is, why not?
JEFF BEZOS
Wired, November 13, 2011
No one on his deathbed ever said, "I wish I had spent more time on my business."
PAUL E. TSONGAS
New York Times, Jan. 14, 1987
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be sustained by neglect of many other things.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
"An Apology for Idlers", Virginibus Puerisque
To business that we love we rise betime,
And go to 't with delight.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Antony and Cleopatra
A businessman can't win nowadays: if he does something wrong, he's fined; if he does something right, he's taxed.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
In poker, as in business, the secret is in knowing how to manage risk and capitalize on opportunity.
LOU KRIEGER
More Hold'em Excellence
Business is but a means. To forget this, and to live for it and in it, as an end, is a cardinal and pernicious mistake, to which much of the want of elevation in the mercantile character is to be ascribed.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
I attend to the business of other people, having lost my own.
HORACE
HORACE
No scheme pays as well as legitimate business.
EDGAR WATSON HOWE
Country Town Sayings
Business on a money-making basis is most insecure. It is a touch-and-go affair, moving irregularly, and rarely over a term of years amounting to much. It is the function of business to produce for consumption and not for money or speculation. Producing for consumption implies that the quality of the article produced will be high and that the price will be low--that the article be one which serves the people and not merely the producer. If the money feature is twisted out of its proper perspective, then the production will be twisted to serve the producer.
HENRY FORD
introduction, My Life and Work
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
HENRY FORD
attributed, News Journal, Aug. 3, 1965
Don't steal; thou'lt never thus compete
Successfully in business. Cheat.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
There are two kinds of second class men in business. There is the man who puts money first and service second. There is the man who puts service first and money second, who never has any money. The first class man in business is the man who is made up out of rolling the other two kinds into one man and working them together.
GERALD STANLEY LEE
The House of Twenty Seven Gardens
When a business man sits down to negotiate a deal, the first thing he does is to automatically assume that the other guy is a complete lying prick who's trying to f*** him outta his money. So he's gotta do everything he can to f*** the other guy a little bit faster and a little bit harder. And he's gotta do it with a big smile on his face.
GEORGE CARLIN
You Are All Diseased
The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure and pleasure my business.
AARON BURR
attributed, Wit and Humor of Bench and Bar
I can honestly say that I have never gone into any business purely to make money. If that is the sole motive then I believe you are better off not doing it. A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.
RICHARD BRANSON
Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
However successful a man may be in his own business, if he turns from that and engages in a business which he don't understand, he is like Samson when shorn of his locks his strength has departed, and he becomes like other men.
P.T. BARNUM
The Art of Money Getting
Companies, as they grow to become multi-billion-dollar entities, somehow lose their vision. They insert lots of layers of middle management between the people running the company and the people doing the work. They no longer have an inherent feel or a passion about the products. The creative people, who are the ones who care passionately, have to persuade five layers of management to do what they know is the right thing to do.
STEVE JOBS
Playboy, Feb. 1985
No nation was ever ruined by trade.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Thoughts on Commercial Subjects
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.
KING SOLOMON
Proverbs 22:29