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