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Business Quotes

“Be methodical if you would succeed in business, or in anything. Have a work for every moment, and mind the moment's work. Whatever your calling, master all its bearings and details, its principles, instruments and applications. Method is essential if you would get through your work easily and with economy of time.”

Ifs Mind Moments Business Principles Economy Masters Calling Succeed Essentials Method Instruments Details Application Methodical

Author:William Matthews

“When the business man who fights to secure special privileges, to crowd his competitor off the track by other than fair competitive methods, receives the same summary disdainful ostracism by his fellows that the doctor or lawyer who is 'unprofessional,' the athlete who abuses the rules, receives, we shall have gone a long way toward making commerce a fit pursuit for our young men.”

Source: The History of the Standard Oil Company

“We are a commercial people. We cannot boast of our arts, our crafts, our cultivation; our boast is in the wealth we produce. As a consequence business success is sanctified, and, practically, any methods which achieve it are justified by a larger and larger class.”

People Art Wealth Business Class United States Achieve Produce Consequence Method Crafts Business Success Justified Boast Cultivation

Book:The History of the Standard Oil Company

Source: The History of the Standard Oil Company

“One of the most depressing features of the ethical side of the matter is that instead of such methods arousing contempt they are more or less openly admired. And this is logical. Canonise 'business success,' and men who made a success like that of the Standard Oil Trust become national heroes!”

Men Made Matter Sides Business Hero Standards Method Oil Features Logical Ethical Contempt Depressing Business Success Most Depressing Standard Oil

Book:The History of the Standard Oil Company: Briefer Version

Source: The History of the Standard Oil Company: Briefer Version

“[On dishonest business methods:] ... frequently the defender of the practice falls back on the Christian doctrine of charity, and points out that we are erring mortals and must allow for each other's weaknesses! - an excuse which, if carried to its legitimate conclusion, would leave our business men weeping on one another's shoulders over human frailty, while they picked one another's pockets.”

“Now, if the Standard Oil Company were the only concern in the country guilty of the practices which have given it monopolistic power, this story never would have been written. Were it alone in these methods, public scorn would long ago have made short work of the Standard Oil Company. But it is simply the most conspicuous type of what can be done by these practices. The methods it employs with such acumen, persistency, and secrecy are employed by all sorts of business men, from corner grocers up to bankers. If exposed, they are excused on the ground that this is business.”

Source: The History of the Standard Oil Company

“Peter Drucker has pointed out that it is a manager's job to "do things right." It is an executive's job to make sure "the right things" get done. Even the most rigorous eco-efficient business paradigm does not challenge basic practices and methods: a shoe, building, factory, car, or shampoo can remain fundamentally ill-designed even as the materials and processes involved in its manufacture become more "efficient."”

Source: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

“Ideally, advertising aims at the goal of a programmed harmony among all human impulses and aspirations and endeavors. Using handicraft methods, it stretches out toward the ultimate electronic goal of a collective consciousness.”

Humans Goal Business Consciousness Ultimate Harmony Aim Method Advertising Impulse Aspiration Collectives Endeavor Collective Consciousness Handicrafts

Author:Marshall McLuhan