Wise Words
Finance/Business
“Draw your salary before spending it.”
George Ade, (1866–1944), American writer, newspaper columnist, & playwright
“Hire people smarter than you are and get out of their way.”
American saying
“Never underpay or overcharge, and your business will thrive.”
Anonymous
“Money is like muck, not good except to be spread.”
Francis Bacon, (1561–1626), English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, & author
“Riches are for spending.”
Francis Bacon, (1561–1626), English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, & author
“Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.”
Aphra Behn, (1640–1689), British dramatist, one of the first English professional female writers
“There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.”
William John Bennett, American conservative pundit, politician, & political theorist
“If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.”
Richard Branson, English industrialist
“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”
Warren Buffett, American investor, businessman, & philanthropist
“Only as long as a company can produce a desired, worthwhile, and needed product or service, and can command the public, will it receive the public dollar and succeed.”
Curtis Carlson, American businessman
“Even though work stops, expenses run on.”
Marcus Porcius Cato (the Elder), (234 BC–149 BC), Roman statesman
“The substance of the eminent Socialist gentleman’s speech is that making a profit is a sin, but it is my belief that the real sin is taking a loss.”
Winston Churchill, (1874–1965), British politician, statesman, & orator
“Our future prosperity depends more on capital spending than spending in the capital.”
CIT Group, The [headline in ad]
“Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it.”
Russell H. Conwell, (1843–1925), American Baptist minister, philanthropist, lawyer, & writer
Coolidge, Calvin: “After all, the chief business of the American people is business.”
Calvin Coolidge, (1872–1933), 30th President of the US
“Money is coined liberty.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, (1821–1881), Russian fiction writer, essayist, & philosopher
“You can't run a business without taking risks.”
Millard Drexler, American businessman
“The basis of political economy is non-interference. The only safe rule is found in the self-adjusting meter of demand and supply.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803–1882), American essayist, philosopher, & poet
“A fool and his money are soon parted.”
English proverb
“We believe that there is one economic lesson which our twentieth century experience has demonstrated conclusively—that America can no more survive and grow without big business than it can survive and grow without small business….the two are interdependent. You cannot strengthen one by weakening the other, and you cannot add to the stature of a dwarf by cutting off the legs of a giant.”
Benjamin Franklin Fairless, American industrialist
“Goodwill is the one and only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.”
Marshall Field, American businessman
“If you don’t drive your business you will be driven out of business.”
B.C. Forbes, (1880–1954), Scottish financial journalist & author
“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.”
Henry Ford, (1863–1947), American inventor & businessman
“Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.”
Henry Ford, (1863–1947), American inventor & businessman
“It is not the employer who pays wages—he only handles the money. It is the product who pays the wages.”
Henry Ford, (1863–1947), American inventor & businessman
“There are two fools in this world. One is the millionaire who thinks that by hoarding money he can somehow accumulate real power, and the other is the penniless reformer who thinks that if only he can take the money from one class and give it to another, all the world’s ills will be cured.”
Henry Ford, (1863–1947), American inventor & businessman
“Drive your business, let not you're business drive you.”
Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790), author, printer, politician, scientist, statesman, & diplomat
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790), author, printer, politician, scientist, statesman, & diplomat
“If you can’t pay for a thing, don’t buy it. If you can’t get paid for it, don’t sell it. Do this, and you will have calm and drowsy nights, with all of the good business you have now and none of the bad. If you have time, don’t wait for time.”
Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790), author, printer, politician, scientist, statesman, & diplomat
“If you’d know the value of Money, go and borrow some.”
Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790), author, printer, politician, scientist, statesman, & diplomat
“No nation was ever ruined by trade.”
Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790), author, printer, politician, scientist, statesman, & diplomat
“Remember that time is money.”
Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790), author, printer, politician, scientist, statesman, & diplomat
“When men are employed, they are best contented; for on the days they worked they were good-natured and cheerful, and with the consciousness of having done a good day’s work, they spent the evening jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous and quarrelsome.”
Benjamin Franklin, (1706–1790), author, printer, politician, scientist, statesman, & diplomat
“Freedom in economic arrangements is itself a component of freedom broadly understood, so economic freedom is an end in itself. … Economic freedom is also an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom.”
Milton Friedman, (1912–2006), American economist & statistician
“Poverty is uncomfortable; but 9 times out of 10 the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and be compelled to sink or swim.”
James A. Garfield, (1831–1881), 20th President of the US
“You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.”
Harold S. Geneen, (1910–1977), American businessman
“People who don’t respect money don’t have any.”
J. Paul Getty, (1892–1976), American industrialist
“Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.”
Andrew Grove, Hungarian-American businessman & scientist
“We mean to have less of government in business as well as more business in government.”
Warren G. Harding, (1865–1923), 29th President of the US
“The most basic law of economics, namely that one cannot get something for nothing.”
R.F. Harrod, (1900–1978), British economist
“Haste in every business brings failures.”
Herodotus, (c. 484 BC–c. 425 BC), Greek historian
“Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., (1841–1935), American jurist
“A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you don’t need it.”
Bob Hope, (1903–2003), British-born American comedian & actor
Iacocca, Lee: “When the product is right, you don’t have to be a great marketer.”
“Agriculture, manufacturers, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left to individual enterprise.”
Thomas Jefferson, (1743–1826), 3rd President of the US
“Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.”
Thomas Jefferson, (1743–1826), 3rd President of the US
“Never spend your money before you have earned it.”
Thomas Jefferson, (1743–1826), 3rd President of the US
“The merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves.”
Thomas Jefferson, (1743–1826), 3rd President of the US
“One of the greatest disservices you can do a man is to lend him money that he can’t pay back.”
Jesse H. Jones, (1874–1956) American politician & entrepreneur
“The engine which drives Enterprise is not Thrift, but Profit.”
John Maynard Keynes, (1883–1946), British economist
“There are no intrinsic reasons for the scarcity of capital.”
John Maynard Keynes, (1883–1946), British economist
“You can hype a questionable product for a little while, but you'll never build an enduring business.”
Victor Kiam, (1926–2001), American entrepreneur
“Large scale collective bargaining…is merely a seductive name for bilateral monopoly…and means either adjudication of conflicts in terms of power, or deadlock and stoppage, usually injuring outside people more than the immediate parties to the dispute.”
Frank Hyneman Knight, (1885–1972), American economist
“Market competition is the only form of organization which can afford a large measure of freedom to the individual.”
Frank Hyneman Knight, (1885–1972), American economist
“I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don’t believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good.”
Abraham Lincoln, (1809–1865), 16th President of the US
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are worthy of protection as any other rights.”
Abraham Lincoln, (1809–1865), 16th President of the US
“That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.”
Abraham Lincoln, (1809–1865), 16th President of the US
“There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business.”
James Russell Lowell, (1819–1891). American poet, critic, editor, & diplomat
“Free trade, one of the greatest blessings which a government can confer on a people, is in almost every country unpopular.”
Thomas B. Macaulay, (1800–1859), British poet, historian & politician
“We might as reasonably dispute whether it is the upper or the under blade of a pair of scissors that cuts a piece of paper, as whether value is governed by utility or cost of production.”
Alfred Marshall, (1842–1924), British economist
“A nation is not in danger of financial disaster merely because it owes itself money.”
Andrew Mellon, (1855–1937), American banker, industrialist, & Secretary of the Treasury
“Riches cover a multitude of woes.”
Menander, (342–291 BC), Greek dramatist
“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, (1911–1999), British advertising executive
“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.”
H. Ross Perot, American businessman
“Private property is a natural fruit of labor, a product of intense activity of man, acquired through his energetic determination to ensure and develop with his own strength his own existence and that of his family, and to create for himself and his own an existence of just freedom, not only economic, but also political, cultural and religious.”
Pope Pius XII, (1876–1958), 260th Roman Catholic pope
“If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans—I would choose—because it contains all the others—the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before. … American were the first to understand that wealth has to be created.”
Ayn Rand, (1905–1982), Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, & screenwriter
“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.”
Ronald Reagan, (1911–2004), 40th President of the United States
“Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau, (1712–1778), philosopher, writer, & composer
“Always try to rub up against money, for if you rub up against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you.”
A. Damon Runyon, (1880–1946) American newspaperman & writer
“No one without a smiling face should open a shop.”
Saying (Chinese)
“Let the buyer beware.” [Caveat emptor.]
Saying (Latin)
“Never throw good money after bad.”
Saying
“Entrepreneurial profit…is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production in exactly the same sense that wages are the value expression of what the worker ‘produces.’ It is not a profit of exploitation any more than are wages.”
Joseph Alois Schumpeter, (1883–1950), Moravian economist & political scientist
“The customer is always right.”
H. Gordon Selfridge, (1858–1947), American-born British retail magnate
“That is the use of money: it enables us to get what we want instead of what other people think we want.”
George Bernard Shaw, (1856–1950), Irish playwright
“Every one lives by selling something.”
Robert Louis Stevenson, (1850–1894), Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, & travel writer
“Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.”
Publilius Syrus, Latin writer of mimes, flourished in the 1st century BC
“Money alone sets all the world in motion.”
Publilius Syrus, Latin writer of mimes, flourished in the 1st century BC
“It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but love of money for its own sake.”
Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister
“We need a free economy not only for the renewed material prosperity it will bring, but because it is indispensable to individual freedom, human dignity and to a more just, more honest society.”
Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister
“I have been poor and I have been rich. Rich is better.”
Sophie Tucker, (1884–1966), Russian-born singer & comedian
“A banker is a fellow who lends his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain.”
Mark Twain, (1835–1910), American author & humorist
“The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not.”
Friedrich August von Hayek, (1899–1992), Austrian/British economist & philosopher
“Everybody thinks of economics whether he is aware of it or not. In joining a political party and in casting his ballot, the citizen implicitly takes a stand upon essential economic theories.”
Ludwig Edler von Mises, (1881–1973), Austrian economist, philosopher, & author
“Money is used to pay bills and credit is used to delay paying them.”
Alan Walters, (1926–2009), British economist
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
Sam Walton, (1918–1992), American businessman & entrepreneur
“Don’t sell the steak; sell the sizzle. It is the sizzle that sells the steak and not the cow, although the cow is, of course, mightily important.”
Elmer Wheeler, American salesman & author
“It is not big business we have to fear. It is big government.”
Wendell Willkie, (1892–1944), American corporate lawyer & GOP presidential nominee
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