19th-century Businessman Quotes

Thomas Edison

Henry Dunant

William Tecumseh Sherman

P. T. Barnum

Cecil Rhodes

Joseph Chamberlain

Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.

Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.

Thomas J. Watson

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

I didn't go to high school, and I didn't go to grade school either. Education, I think, is for refinement and is probably a liability.

An alternating-current high-voltage wire gets loose, it could kill a man as quick as a bolt of lightning. Direct current is safe. Can't develop more than one hundred and ten volts. Working on alternating current is a complete waste of time.

Said to Nikola Tesla

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.

The construction of extensive railways, however, and particularly the consolidation of small, experimental lines into large systems, dates from the days of the discovery of gold in California

John Moody (financial analyst)

The heart bow'd down by weight of woe, To weakest hope will cling, To thought and impulse while they flow, That can no comfort bring, That can, that can no comfort bring, With those exciting scenes will blend, O'er pleasure's pathway thrown; But mem'ry is the only friend That grief can call its own.

Money alone cannot build character or transform evil into good. It cries for full partnership with leaders of character and good will who value good tools in the creation and enlargement of life for Man.

Corporations are going, we are told, to destroy the country. But what would this country be but for corporations? Who have developed it? Corporations. Who transact the most marvelous business the world has ever seen? Corporations.

That friggin' … outfit.... They prostituted every goddamn thing I had. I had the greatest gravy in the world and those sons of bitches they dragged it out and extended it and watered it down that I'm so goddamn mad.

Harland Sanders

Early one morning in the winter of 1906-7, Henry Ford dropped in at the pattern department of the Piquette Avenue plant to see me. 'Come with me, Charlie,' he said, 'I want to show you something.'

Charles E. Sorensen

If they had made that longer six-cylinder crankshaft strong enough and had supported it well enough, they would have obtained the smoother action they talks about in their advertisements. But they could not do that, and those early sixes had a very undesirable period vibration at certain speeds. That vibration more than offset the gain that they would have realized, if they had treated the crankshaft properly.

Henry M. Leland

In setting up a business under the name and meaning of the Golden Rule, I was publicly binding myself, in my business relations, to a principle which had been a real and intimate part of my family upbringing. Our idea was to make money and build business through serving the community with fair dealing and honest value.

James Cash Penney

A great business success was probably never attained by chasing the dollar, but is due to pride in one's work, the pride that makes business an art.

Henry Latham Doherty

We may indeed live yet to see, or at least we may feel some confidence that those who come after us will see, such bodies as oxygen and hydrogen in the liquid, perhaps even in the solid state.

Make all you can honestly ; save all you can prudently ; give all you can wisely.

You can't breathe for sheer revulsion when you keep finding the bodies of women with bamboo poles thrust up their vaginas. Even old women over 70 are constantly being raped.

Always remember this Anna, there are no walls, no bolts, no locks that anyone can put on your mind.

I was a mere tourist with no part whatever in this great conflict; but it was my rare privilege, through an unusual train of circumstances, to witness the moving scenes that I have resolved to describe. In these pages I give only my personal impressions; so my readers should not look here for specific details, nor for information on strategic matters; these things have their place in other writings.

We are not to judge thrift solely by the test of saving or spending. If one spends what he should prudently save, that certainly is to be deplored. But if one saves what he should prudently spend, that is not necessarily to be commended. A wise balance between the two is the desired end.

No man ought to be compelled to live where a rose cannot grow.

I have the courage of my opinions, but I have not the temerity to give a political blank cheque to Lord Salisbury.

George Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen

Promise them not only bargains, but that every article will be found
just what it is guaranteed to be. Use no deception in the smallest
degree - nothing you cannot defend before God or Man.

The geologist commences where the astronomer ends.

Joseph Prestwich

The great Pacific Railway is commenced... Immigration will soon pour into these valleys. Ten millions of emigrants will settle in this golden land in twenty years... This is the grandest enterprise under God!

George Francis Train