has celebrated innovators and agitators, the big dreamers and behind-the-scenes doers who have transformed the business landscape and with it the lives of billions for the better. Its no secretpeople want to know how these billionaires and businesspeople have scaled the heights of industry (and pocketed tidy fortunes at the same time). Some of this success, it must be said, cant be repeated or imitated. After all, Mark Cuban, George Soros and many other maverick business thinkers got where they are today by making canny bets that few can hope to match, reproduce or further exploit.
But the lessons these great entrepreneurs, critics, thinkers and capitalists have left usand more to the point, the wise sayings and thoughts theyve shared over the yearsare instrumental and invaluable. You may not become a billionaire overnight (and a few quotes that follow echo this point), but you can understand what makes these great men and women tick, and what thoughts, ideals and adages have been central to their success. Take some of these aphorisms to heart, and who knows, you could find your name and saying in the next edition of this humble book of business quotes.
ABILITY
Ability has nothing to do with opportunity.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability.
CHINESE PROVERB Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
CICERO Capacity never lacks opportunity.
CICERO Capacity never lacks opportunity.
It cannot remain undiscovered because it is sought by too many anxious to use it. BOURKE COCKRAN I will not be concerned at other mens not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability. CONFUCIUS The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has. CONFUCIUS What I need is someone who will make me do what I can. RALPH WALDO EMERSON A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner. ENGLISH PROVERB There are few, if any, jobs in which ability alone is sufficient.
Needed, also, are loyalty, sincerity, enthusiasm and team play. WILLIAM B. GIVEN JR. If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test. ELBERT HUBBARD But is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to the task. L. L.
RON HUBBARD Latent abilities are like clay. It can be mud on shoes, brick in a building or a statue that will inspire all who see it. The clay is the same. The result is dependent on how it is used. JAMES F. TOM H. TOM H.
PEAR In private matters everyone is equal before the law. In public matters, when it is a question of putting power and responsibility into the hands of one man rather than another, what counts is not rank or money, but the ability to do the job well. PERICLES Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do the work. JOHN G. POLLARD Ability and necessity dwell near each other. FRANOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance. FRANOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD A mans ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another. FRANOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD A mans ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another.
If his soul be well-ordered, serious and restrained, his ability also is sound and sober. Conversely, when the one degenerates, the other is contaminated. SENECA The young man of native ability, the will to work and good personality will, in the long run, get the equivalent of a college education in the tasks he will set for himself. If he has ability and determination, he will find ways to learn and to get ahead. EDWARD G. BARUCH SPINOZA Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. PUBLILIUS SYRUS Not because of an extraordinary talent did he succeed, but because he had a capacity of a level for business and not above it. TACITUS Forget yourself in your work. TACITUS Forget yourself in your work.
If your employer sees that you are more concerned about your own interests than about his, that you are fussy about getting credit of every little or big thing you do, then you are apt to be passed by when a responsible job has to be filled Dont worry about how big an increase in your salary you can contrive to get. Dont let your mind dwell on money at all, if you can help it. Throw yourself, body, soul and spirit, into whatever you are doing The truth is that in every organization, no matter how large or how small, someone is taking notice of any employee who shows special ability. HARRY B. THAYER People are always ready to admit a mans ability after he gets there. BOB EDWARDS Almost any idea is good if a man has ability and is willing to work hard.
The best idea is worthless if the creator is a loafer and ineffective. WILLIAM FEATHER Ability is useless unless its used. ROBERT HALF There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability. ELBERT HUBBARD Im not very smart and have mediocre ability. LEONARD MARX Everybody has the obligation to produce as long as they are capable. LEONARD MARX No one respects a talent that is concealed. DESIDERIUS ERASMUS If the power to do hard work is not talent, it is the best possible substitute for it. JAMES A. JAMES A.
GARFIELD