Business Quotes

“Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.”
― Jaachynma N.E. Agu, The Prince and the Pauper

“Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Men

“Business is a game, played for fantastic stakes, and you're in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game.”
― Sidney Sheldon, Master of the Game

“There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Love should be treated like a business deal, but every business deal has its own terms and its own currency. And in love, the currency is virtue. You love people not for what you do for them or what they do for you. You love them for the values, the virtues, which they have achieved in their own character.”
― Ayn Rand

“If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.”
― John Gottman (

“If you're waiting until you feel talented enough to make it, you'll never make it.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Fortune does favor the bold and you'll never know what you're capable of if you don't try.”
― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

“Great results, can be achieved with small forces.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“If you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots. If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.”
― T. Harv Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth

“Once poverty is gone, we'll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They'll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society - how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.”
― Muhammad Yunus, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism

“Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by "opinions" when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking.”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

“Truth builds trust.”
― Marilyn Suttle

“If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”
― Simon Sinek

“A photograph shouldn't be just a picture, it should be a philosophy.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”
― Steuart Henderson Britt, Marketing Management and Administrative Action

“The absence of a message sometimes is a presence of one.”
― Hasse Jerner

“Bravery without forethought, causes a man to fight blindly and desperately like a mad bull.  Such an opponent, must not be encountered with brute force, but may be lured into an ambush and slain.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“To escape fear, you have to go through it, not around.”
― Richie Norton, Résumés Are Dead and What to Do About It

“In regards to the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates as simple interest does, the rise of profit operates like compound interest.

Our merchants and masters complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price and lessening the sale of goods. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.”
― Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
― Albert Einstein

“The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.”
― Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay
too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The
common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a
lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well
to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will
have enough to pay for something better.”
― John Ruskin

“If you are deliberately trying to create a future that feels safe, you will willfully ignore the future that is likely.”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

“Steve Jobs gave a small private presentation about the iTunes Music Store to some independent record label people. My favorite line of the day was when people kept raising their hand saying, "Does it do [x]?", "Do you plan to add [y]?". Finally Jobs said, "Wait wait — put your hands down. Listen: I know you have a thousand ideas for all the cool features iTunes could have. So do we. But we don't want a thousand features. That would be ugly. Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It's about saying NO to all but the most crucial features.”
― Derek Sivers

“If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want. ”
― Zig Ziglar

“The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions. And even a cursory glance at the history of the biological sciences during the last quarter of a century is sufficient to justify the assertion, that the most potent instrument for the extension of the realm of natural knowledge which has come into men's hands, since the publication of Newton's ‘Principia’, is Darwin's ‘Origin of Species.”
― Thomas Henry Huxley