The Wisdom Of Business

For many years I have built up a notebook of business quotes that have inspired or amused me, below are small sample. Take from them what you will.

Designing your product for monetization first and people second will probably leave you with neither. - Tara Hunt

Good design can't fix broken business models. - Jeffrey Veen

 My candle burns at both its ends; 
  It will not last the night; 
  But oh, my foes, and oh, my friends -- 
  It gives a lovely light.
  Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

I ran the wrong kind of business, but I did it with integrity. - Sydney Biddle Barrows

Drive thy business or it will drive thee. - Benjamin Franklin

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else- we are the busiest people in the world. - Eric Hoffer

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman. - David M Ogilvy

In the business world, the rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield. - Warren Buffet

Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you're not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. -  David Rockefeller

A dinner lubricates business. -  Lord William Stowell

To succeed as a team is to hold all of the members accountable for their expertise. -  Mitchel Caplan

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. -  Henry Ford

All lasting business is built on friendship. -  Alfred A Montaper

Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures. -  Tom Peters

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department. -  Andrew Carnegie

Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch. -  Tim Berners - Lee

As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth. -  John Greenleaf Whittier

Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight. -  Henry R Luce

Do more than is required. What is the distance between someone who achieves their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following?  The extra mile.  - Gary Ryan Blair

Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to. - Harry Emerson Fosdick

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. - Steven Covey

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. - Napoleon Hill

Failure doesn't mean you are a failure it just means you haven't succeeded yet. - Robert H Schuller
  

I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money. - Lord Acton

If you can build a business up big enough, it's respectable. - Will Rodgers

If you don't drive your business, you will be driven out of business. - B.C. Forbes

In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man who doesn't know what he is doing. - William Wordsworth
 

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. - Mark Twain

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. - Henry Ford