Sunday, January 11, 2009 – Bad Business
I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me. ~ John Cleese
A fellow who is always declaring he’s no fool usually has his suspicions. ~ Wilson Mizner
Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it. ~ Samuel Johnson
The man who is admired for the ingenuity of his larceny is almost always rediscovering some earlier form of fraud. The basic forms are all known, have all been practiced. The manners of capitalism improve. The morals may not. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
A bad forgery’s the ultimate insult. ~ Jonathan Gash
Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control. ~ Don Marquis
Honesty pays, but it doesn’t seem to pay enough to suit some people. ~ Kin Hubbard
It is the act of a bad man to deceive by falsehood. [Improbi hominis est mendacio fallere.] ~ Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero), Oratio Pro Murena (XXX)
Every crowd has a silver lining. ~ P. T. Barnum
Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate. ~ Bertrand Russell
What kind of society isn’t structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of a system. ~ Milton Friedman
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. ~ John Maynard Keynes
Bank failures are caused by depositors who don’t deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement. ~ Dan Quayle
If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem. ~ Jean Paul Getty
Isn’t it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists? ~ Kelvin Throop III
So glistered the dire Snake, and into fraud Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the Tree Of Prohibition, root of all our woe. ~ John Milton, Paradise Lost (book IX, line 643)
The scientific name for an animal that doesn’t either run from or fight its enemies is lunch. ~ Michael Friedman
Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues. ~ Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success. ~ Irving Berlin
It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. ~ Noel Coward
We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal. ~ Tennessee Williams
Criminal, n. A person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation. ~ Howard Scott
Little by little, the pimps have taken over the world. They don’t do anything, they don’t make anything – they just stand there and take their cut. ~ Jean Giradoux
If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us. ~ Hermann Hesse
Just Above Sunset 