There’s a lot more business out there in small town America than I ever dreamed of.
—Sam Walton (1918–92) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Don’t try to be the ‘next’. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
There are so many men who can figure costs, and so few who can measure values.
—Unknown
The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because the people themselves have become so deeply involved in big business.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
I was actually a fruitarian at that point in time. I ate only fruit. Now I’m a garbage can like everyone else. And we were about three months late in filing a fictitious business name so I threatened to call the company Apple Computer unless someone suggested a more interesting name by five o’clock that day. Hoping to stimulate creativity. And it stuck. And that’s why we’re called Apple.
—Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American Entrepreneur, 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
The best minds are not in the government. If any were, business would hire them away.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
It’s better to make a decision, even the wrong one, than to be in limbo.
—Seth Godin (b.1960) American Entrepreneur
Few great men could pass personal.
—Paul Goodman (1911–72) American Novelist, Essayist
Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves – to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our today, to do our work with more force than ever before.
—Stewart B. Johnson
Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. It’s something that we make happen, and it results from doing our best. Feeling fulfilled when we live up to our potentialities is what motivates differentiation and leads to evolution.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
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
Let love give way to business; give attention to business and you will be safe.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
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
Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
More business is lost every year through neglect than through any other cause.
—Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890–1995) American Philanthropist, Socialite
What helps people, helps business.
—Leo Burnett (1891–1971) American Advertising Executive
If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
There is far more danger in a public monopoly than there is in a private monopoly, for when government goes into business it can always shift its losses to the taxpayer. The Government never really goes into business, for it never makes ends meet, and that is the first requisite of business. It just mixes a little business with a lot of politics, and no one ever gets a chance to find out what is actually going on.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.
—Ross Perot (1930–2019) American Businessman
My father said: “You must never try to make all the money that’s in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won’t have many deals.”
—J. Paul Getty (1892–1976) American Business Person, Art Collector, Philanthropist
Business was originated to produce happiness, not to pile up millions.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
The position you hold and the work you are now doing.
—Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–67) American Poet, Playwright, Essayist
I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Without respect, the subtle alchemy that binds an organization or that serves as the impetus for a business transaction would dissolve into mutual suspicion and hostility.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.
—Bob Galvin (1922–2011) American Business Executive
He who will not apply himself to business, eventually discovers that he means to get his bread by cheating, stealing, or begging, or else is wholly void of reason.
—Xenophon (c.430–c.354 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Like squirrels, the best in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning their abilities – they flat out trust their skills, which is why we call this high-performance state of mind the “Trusting Mindset”.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
If you wish to prosper, let your customer prosper…
When people have learned this lesson, everyone will seek his individual welfare in the general welfare. Then jealousies between man and man, city and city, province and province, nation and nation, will no longer trouble the world.
—Frederic Bastiat (1801–50) French Political Economist
O world, world! thus is the poor agent despised. O traitors and bawds, how earnestly are you set a-work, and how ill requited! Why should our endeavor be so loved, and the performance so loathed?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Live together like brothers and do business like strangers.
—Arabic Proverb
In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Not only is there little stigma attributed to going bankrupt among cutting-edge entrepreneurs, it’s even seen as a good source of business experience.
—Unknown
The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.
—George Goodman (b.1930) American Economist, Author
Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
Well, I don’t know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to do what I want to do.
—J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) American Financier, Philanthropist, Art Collector
When you’re out of quality you’re out of business.
—Unknown
It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Business or toil is merely utilitarian. It is necessary, but does not enrich or ennoble a human life.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.
—W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American Self-help Guru, Entrepreneur
The best players in any high-stakes field – business, entertainment, law, surgery, as well as sport – recognize that pressure occurs at the moments when meaningful accomplishment is possible. In fact, that is the reason why performers perform: for the opportunity to tackle challenges head on, to do something significant, to demonstrate what their hard work and talent can produce.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
The great virtue of free enterprise is that it forces existing businesses to meet the test of the market continuously, to produce products that meet consumer demands at lowest cost, or else be driven from the market. It is a profit-and-loss system. Naturally, existing businesses generally prefer to keep out competitors in other ways. That is why the business community, despite its rhetoric, has so often been a major enemy of truly free enterprise.
—Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American Economist
Entrepreneurial profit is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production.
—Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) Austrian-American Political Economist, Sociologist
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your own family to read. You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine. Do as you would be done by. If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out—either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time. Good products can be sold by honest advertising. If you don’t think the product is good, you have no business to be advertising it.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive