Business quotes
3.6K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside business — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."
"If you can't make it good, at least make it look good."
"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."
"Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon."
"You have to know accounting. It's the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization. I've heard it came to civilization through Venice which of course was once the great commercial power in the Mediterranean. However, double entry bookkeeping was a hell of an invention."
"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."
"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next."
"The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake."
"I have no use for bodyguards, but I have very specific use for two highly trained certified public accountants."
"In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity."
"The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity."
"Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat."
"A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain."
"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow."
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
"A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well."
"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired."
"Help young people. Help small guys. Because small guys will be big. Young people will have the seeds you bury in their minds, and when they grow up, they will change the world."
"The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine."
"Diligence is the mother of good luck."
