Sunday, July 5, 2015 – Businessmen in Charge
Businessmen were not born chief executives. They were often people first. ~ Richard Jefferson
I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel and incompetent comes naturally to me. ~ John Cleese
Few businessmen are capable of being in politics; they don’t understand the democratic process. They have neither the tolerance nor the depth it takes. Democracy isn’t a business. ~ Malcolm Forbes
We need to be clear when we venerate entrepreneurs what we are venerating. They are not moral leaders. If they were moral leaders, they wouldn’t be great businessmen. ~ Malcolm Gladwell
A lot of very successful businessmen share some of these sociopathic traits – a lack of empathy, seeing people as commodities, projecting an air of sincerity when everything is actually calculated. ~ Oscar Isaac
The last thing businessmen want to do is sit in a room filled with other businessmen. A room full of money is a pretty boring sight – unless it’s yours, of course. ~ Graydon Carter
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
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 wicked 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
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
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
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
Honest businessmen should be protected from the unscrupulous consumer. ~ Lester Maddox
The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. ~ David Ogilvy
Nothing is illegal if one hundred businessmen decide to do it. ~ Andrew Young
Business is a combination of war and sport. ~ Andre Maurois
Business, that’s easily defined – it’s other people’s money. ~ Peter Drucker
Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility. ~ Ambrose Bierce
A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation. ~ Howard Scott
To take something from a person and keep it for oneself: that is robbery. To take something from one person and then turn it over to another in exchange for as much money as you can get: that is business. Robbery is so much more stupid, since it is satisfied with a single, frequently dangerous profit; whereas in business it can be doubled without danger. ~ Octave Mirbeau
Criminals are never very amusing. It’s because they’re failures. Those who make real money aren’t counted as criminals. This is a class distinction, not an ethical problem. ~ Orson Welles
Employees make the best dates. You don’t have to pick them up and they’re always tax-deductible. ~ Andy Warhol
When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder. ~ James H. Boren
Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results. ~ Scott Adams
The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights. ~ J. Paul Getty
The “west” – what curse has fallen upon it that at the term of its trajectory it produces only these businessmen, these shopkeepers, these racketeers with their blank stares and atrophied smiles? Is it with such vermin as this that a civilization so delicate and so complex must come to an end? ~ Emil Cioran
I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business. ~ Henry David Thoreau
In college, Yuppies major in business administration. If to meet certain requirements they have to take a liberal arts course, they take Business Poetry. ~ Dave Barry
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish and he will eat steak. ~ Jay Leno
It is unfortunate we can’t buy many business executives for what they are worth and sell them for what they think they are worth. ~ Malcolm Forbes
The market has no morality ~ Michael Heseltine
Just Above Sunset 