Attend no auctions if thou hast no money.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
When each of these three elements of vision—concern for excellence, for people and for the wider environment—are present, business is transformed from a tool for making profits into a creative, humane experiment for improving life.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Make the workmanship surpass the materials.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
Anyone who says businessmen deal only in facts, not fiction, has never read old five-year projections.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Professionals are people who can do their job when they don’t feel like it. Amateurs are people who can’t do their job when they do feel like it.
—Anonymous
Rivalry is the life of trade, and the death of the trader.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.
—Ray Kroc (1902–84) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
If you don’t drive your business you will be driven out of business.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
Every business and every product has risks. You can’t get around it.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.
—Andrew Grove (1936–2016) Hungarian-born American Businessperson
The goal of war is peace, of business, leisure
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.
—Richard Branson (b.1950) British Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurial profit is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production.
—Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian-American Political Economist, Sociologist
The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife. Try not to insult her intelligence.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
It is very vulgar to talk about one’s business. Only people like stockbrokers do that, and then merely at dinner parties.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Most are engaged in business the greater part of their lives, because the soul abhors a vacuum and they have not discovered any continuous employment for man’s nobler faculties
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The first mistake in public business is the going into it.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act, and came to the following conclusion: “I thought to myself, well if that’s the case and if what I’m scared of isn’t death, but getting to the end with regrets, then I’ve got to figure out what would be the things that I would regret when I got to the last act if I hadn’t done them or achieved them by then. And they were: having an intimate relationship and having made a difference”.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Live together like brothers and do business like strangers.
—Arabic Proverb
Business is like a wheelbarrow—it stands still until someone pushes it.
—Unknown
As an organization grows and succeeds, it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
All lasting business is built on friendship.
—Alfred A. Montapert (1906–97) American Engineer, Philosopher
It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100%—when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Unequal combinations are always disadvantageous to the weaker side.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
In ambition, as in love, the successful can afford to be indulgent toward their rivals. The prize our own, it is graceful to recognize the merit that vainly aspired to it.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Keeping a little ahead of conditions is one of the secrets of business; the trailer seldom goes far.
—Charles M. Schwab (1862–1939) American Businessperson
When pleasure interferes with business, give up business.
—U.S. Proverb
A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.
—John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) American Oil Magnate, Philanthropist
No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level—I mean the wages of decent living.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
No nation was ever ruined by trade.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
You can’t run a business or anything else on a theory.
—Harold S. Geneen (1910–1997) British-American Businessman
You can hype a questionable product for a little while, but you’ll never build an enduring business.
—Victor Kiam (1926–2001) American Entrepreneur
He should be the owner of the land who rubs it between his hands every spring.
—Russian Proverb
If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic!
—William Bernbach
A generation which has passed through the shop has absorbed standards and ambitions which are not of those of spaciousness, and cannot get away from them. Everything with them is done as though for sale, and they naturally have in view the greatest possible benefit, profit and that end of the stuff that will make the best show.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.
—William Bennett (b.1943) American Politician, Political Theorist, Government Official
Leisure for people of business, and business for people of leisure would cure many problems.
—Indian Proverb
Your enthusiasm will be infectious, stimulating and attractive to others. They will love you for it. They will go for you and with you.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
The go-between wears out a thousand sandals.
—Japanese Proverb
There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
In business, three things are necessary: knowledge, temper, and time.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
The downside, of course, is that over time religions become encrusted with precepts and ideas that are the antithesis of soul, as each faith tries to protect its doctrines and institution instead of nurturing the evolution of consciousness. If one is not careful to distinguish the genuine insights of a religion from its irrelevant accretions, one can go through life following an inappropriate moral compass.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (b.1934) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual.
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972) American Playwright, Poet, Novelist
I buy when other people are selling.
—J. Paul Getty (1892–1976) American Business Person, Art Collector, Philanthropist
A businessman is a hybrid between a dancer and a calculator.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.
—Tom Peters (b.1942) American Management Consultant, Author
If you call one thing good, you must call its opposite bad. If you think it wonderful to make a big profit in your business, you will also think it terrible if you incur a large loss. The idea is to live above the opposites.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
Thought, not money, is the real business capital, and if you know absolutely that what you are doing is right, then you are bound to accomplishment it in due season.
—Harvey Samuel Firestone (1868–1938) American Industrialist