Business
Favorite Selections from ToInspire.com
The most sensible people to be met within society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be. - William Hazlitt
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing. - Herodotus
Morale is when your hands and feet keep on working when your head says it can't be done. - Benjamin Morrell
When speculation has done its worse, two and two still make four. - Samuel Johnson
Confidence is the foundation for all business relations. The degree of confidence a man has in others, and the degree of confidence others have in him, determines a man's standing in the commercial and industrial world. - William J.H. Boetcker
Who likes not his business, his business likes not him. - William Hazlitt
The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues. - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Business is like a man rowing a boat upstream. He has no choice; he must go ahead or he will go back. - Lewis E. Pierson
Commerce is the great civilizer. We exchange ideas when we exchange fabrics. - Robert G. Ingersoll
The big shots are only the little shots who keep shooting. - Christopher Morley
Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason. - Ayn Rand
Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible. - Milton Friedman
The golden rule for every business man is this: "Put yourself in your customer's place." - Orison Swett Marden
It's not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It's the customer who pays the wages. - Henry Ford
Customer service doesn't come from a manual, it comes from the heart. When you're taking care of the customer, you can never do too much. And there is NO wrong way - if it comes from the heart. - Debbie ("Mrs.") Fields
The only way to know how customers see your business is to look at it through their eyes. - Daniel R. Scroggin
Motivate them, train them, care about them, and make winners out of them...they'll treat the customers right. And if customers are treated right, they'll come back. - J. Marriott Jr.
Honesty pays dividends both in dollars and in peace of mind. - B.C. Forbes
Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else. - Sir James Barrie
The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage. (from 'The Fifth Discipline') - Peter Senge
The best thing workers can bring to their jobs is a lifelong thirst for learning. - Jack Welch
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. - Confucius
October is one of those dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, November, and December. - Mark Twain
You can't rule out deflation just because you've never seen it in your lifetime. - N. Gregory Mankiw
You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are. - from 'A Short Guide to a Happy Life' (Random House) - Anna Quindlen
If you think of vision and mission as an organization's head and heart, the values it holds are its soul. (from 'Making Common Sense Common Practice') - Buzotta
When I was young, I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is. - Oscar Wilde
There is nothing so easy to learn as experience and nothing so hard to apply. - Josh Billings
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. - Warren Buffett
If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. - Sam Walton
When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever. (written in a report to company shareholders) - Warren Buffett
It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity. - Kofi Annan
Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. - Warren Buffett
If we consistently act on the optimistic hypothesis, this hypothesis will tend to be realised; whilst by acting on the pessimistic hypothesis we can keep ourselves for ever in the pit of want. (from 'Essays in Persuasion') - John Maynard Keynes
The error of optimism dies in the crisis, but in dying it gives birth to an error of pessimism. The new error is born not an infant, but a giant. - Arthur Pigou
Though the stock market functions as a voting machine in the short run, it acts as a weighing machine in the long run. - Ben Graham
The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself. - Napoleon Hill
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. - Benjamin Franklin
he thing is, continuity of strategic direction and continuous improvement in how you do things are absolutely consistent with each other. In fact, they're mutually reinforcing. - Michael Porter
Inflation is taxation without legislation. - Milton Friedman