We do not act rightly because we have virtue or
excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.
Aristotle 384 B.C.-322 B.C., Greek
philosopher and scientist, student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the
Great
Different things delight different people. But it is my delight to keep
the ruling faculty sound without turning away either from any man or
from any of the things which happen to men, but looking at and receiving
all with welcome eyes and using everything according to its value.
Marcus Aurelius 121-180, Roman
emperor and stoic philosopher in "Ta eis heauton" (The things you say to
yourself), VIII.43
Capital must be propelled by self-interest; it cannot be enticed by
benevolence.
Walter Bagehot 1826-1877, English
monetary economist
Commerce is as a heaven, whose sun is trustworthiness and whose moon is
truthfulness.
Bahá'u'lláh 1817-1892, Persian
nobleman and founder of the Baha’I religion.
Corporation, n., An ingenious device for obtaining profit without
individual responsibility.
Ambrose Bierce 1842-1914, American
columnist and writer of horror stories, The Devil's
Dictionary 1906
There are two levers to set a man in motion, fear and self-interest.
Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, French
general and emperor
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
Warren Buffett 1930-, American
Investment Entrepreneur
Earnings can be pliable as putty when a charlatan heads the company
reporting them.
Warren Buffett 1930-, American
Investment Entrepreneur
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do
nothing.
Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797, Irish
orator, philosopher, & politician
There is a natural principle of benevolence in man, which is in some
degree to society what self-love is to the individual.
Joseph Butler 1692-1752, English
Bishop of Durham and Theologian in one of his sermons on "Compassion'"
(1726)
At this moment, America's highest economic need is higher ethical
standards -- standards enforced by strict laws and upheld by responsible
business leaders.
George W. Bush, current President of
the USA,
corporate responsibility speech - July 9, 2002
In making judgments, the Early Kings were perfect, because they made
moral principles the starting point of all their undertakings and the
root of everything that was beneficial. This principle, however, is
something that persons of mediocre intellect never grasp. Not grasping
it, they lack awareness, and lacking awareness, they pursue profit. But
while they pursue profit, it is absolutely impossible for them to be
certain of attaining it.
Lü Bu-wei 246 B.C., Chinese Prime
Minister under Emperor Ying Zheng, The Annals of Lü Bu-wei, Lu Shi Chun
Qiu
Cheshire Puss, asked Alice. Would you tell me, please, which way I ought
to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to go, said
the Cat. I don’t much care where, said Alice. Then it doesn’t matter
which way you go, said the Cat.
Charles "Lewis Carroll" Dodgson
1832-1898, English writer and mathematician, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland 1865
The inherent vice of capitalism is the uneven division of blessings,
while the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal division of misery.
Sir Winston Churchill 1874-1965,
British Prime Minister and writer
Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority, that
this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth.
Marcus Tullius Cicero 106-43
B.C.,
Roman statesman, writer, lawyer and orator, murdered by Antonius
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
Arthur C. Clarke 1917-, British
Science Fiction Writer
To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.
Confucius 551 B.C. - 479 B.C., Chinese
philosopher, The Analects, Book II, Chapter XXIV
The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind
of the mean man is conversant with gain.
Confucius 551 B.C. - 479 B.C., Chinese
philosopher, The Analects, Book IV, Chapter XVI
The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not
seen are eternal.
II Corinthians 4.1:18
Personal leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values
before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them.
Stephen Covey, American leadership
consultant and writer
Out of 5.8 billion people in the world, the majority of them are
certainly not believers in Buddhism. We can't argue with them, tell them
they should be believers. No! Impossible! And, realistically speaking,
if the majority of humanity remain nonbelievers, it doesn't matter. No
problem! The problem is that the majority have lost, or ignore, the
deeper human values - compassion, a sense of responsibility. That is our
big concern.
The Dalai Lama in Time, December 1997
In God we trust, all others bring data.
Dr. W. Edwards Deming 1900-1993,
American Statistician
It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or
methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for
everyone. . . . The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the
system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value
judgment.
Dr. W. Edwards Deming 1900-1993,
American Statistician
My aim is not to teach the method that everyone ought to follow in order
to conduct his reason well, but solely to reveal how I have tried to
conduct my own.
René Descartes 1596-1650, French
philosopher and founder of analytic geometry, in Discours de la méthode,
1637
What has never been doubted, has never been proven.
Denis Diderot 1713-1784, French
radical Enlightenment philosopher and Chief Editor of the Encyclopédie, in
'Pensées Philosophique'(1746)
It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.
Roy Disney, American Film Writer,
Producer, Nephew of Walt Disney
Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is
what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not
quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as
manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay
only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else
constitutes quality.
Peter F. Drucker, American
Management
Guru
That business purpose and business mission are so rarely given
adequate thought is perhaps the most important cause of business
frustration and failure.
Peter F. Drucker, American Management
Guru in 'Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices' (1973)
Management is doing things right;
leadership is doing the right things.
Peter F. Drucker, American Management
Guru
The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of
management in the 20th century was the fifty-fold increase in the
productivity of the manual worker in manufacturing. The most important
contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is similarly
to increase the productivity of knowledge work and the knowledge worker.
Peter F. Drucker, American Management
Guru
Wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.
Ecclesiastes 10:19
Executives will have to invest more and more on issues such as culture,
values, ethos and intangibles. Instead of managers, they need to be
cultivators and storytellers to capture minds.
Leif Edvinsson, pioneer on
Intellectual Capital in Corporate Longitude 2002
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses
both.
Dwight David Eisenhower 1890-1969, US
General, 34th president of the United States
We never know the worth of water 'til the well is dry.
English Proverb
Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything
that counts cannot necessarily be counted.
Albert Einstein 1879 - 1955,
German-born brilliant American theoretical physicist
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of
value.
Albert Einstein 1879-1955,
German-born brilliant American theoretical physicist
The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he
has attained liberation from the self.
Albert Einstein 1879-1955,
German-born brilliant American theoretical physicist
One should guard against preaching to young people success in the
customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for
work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result,
and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.
Albert Einstein 1879-1955,
German-born brilliant American theoretical physicist
The value of achievement lies in the achieving.
Albert Einstein 1879-1955,
German-born brilliant American theoretical physicist
When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the
pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are
understood to do by some through ignorance, prejudice, or willful
misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body
and of trouble in the soul. It is not an unbroken succession of
drinking-bouts and of merrymaking, not sexual love, not the enjoyment of
the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a
pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every
choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the
greatest disturbances take possession of the soul.
Epicurus 341 B.C.-270
B.C., ancient Greek
philosopher, father of hedonism in: "The letter to Menoeceus"
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few
wants.
Epicurus 341 B.C.-270
B.C., ancient Greek
philosopher, father of hedonism
Good education teaches in the shortest possible way what one should aim
for and what one should try to avoid, and does not show, after the evil
has happened: this has gone wrong, be alert for this from now on, but it
learns you before you act: when you do this, you will disgrace yourself
and disaster will come over you. So let's create this threefold bond:
that education will lead nature and that practice will complete
education.
Desiderius Erasmus 1466-1536, Dutch
renaissance scholar, theologian and humanist, in 'De libero arbitrio
diatribe', (1524)
Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.
Irving Fisher, Professor of
Economics, Yale University, 1929
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.
Henry Ford 1863 – 1947, American
industrialist
I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought
upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things.
Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790, American
politician, inventor and scientist
There is one and only one responsibility of business - to use its
resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so
long as it stays within the rules of the game.
Milton Friedman 1912-, American
prominent economist advocate of free markets, 1976 Nobel price for economics
You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to discover it in
himself.
Galileo Galilei 1564-1642, Italian
physicist and astronomer
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's
greed.
Mahatma Gandhi 1869-1948, Indian
great ethic-spiritual and political leader, famous for non-violent
resistance
Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed cuts through,
clarifies, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Gordon Gekko - played by Michael
Douglas - in the movie Wall Street
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth
was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and
the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there
be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he
separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:1-4
The only sustainable competitive advantage is the ability to learn
faster than the competition.
Arie de Geus, Dutch writer, author of
'The Living Company'
I can't change the fact that my paintings don't sell. But the time will
come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value
of the paints used in the picture.
Vincent van Gogh 1853-1890, Dutch
painter
Its not enough, to know, one should also use; its not enough to want,
one should also act.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832,
German poet and Nature philosopher
After all, everybody only hears what he understands.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832,
German poet and Nature philosopher
One should not think about the result; one does not travel to reach a
destination, but to travel.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832,
German poet and Nature philosopher
The illustrious bishop of Cambrai was of more worth than his
chambermaid, and there are few of us that would hesitate to pronounce,
if his palace were in flames, and the life of only one of them could be
preserved, which of the two ought to be preferred.
William Goldwin 1756-1836, British
uncompromising rational thinker and philosophic radical who surprisingly
did not apply these principles in his own personal life, in: 'An Enquiry
concerning the Principles of Political Justice, and Its Influence on
general Virtue and Happiness' (1793)
Treating people with respect will gain one wide acceptance and improve
the business.
Tao Zhu Gong 500 B.C., Assistant to the
Emperor of Yue, 2nd Business Principle
Huggling over evey ounce in purchasing may not reduce one's cost of
capital.
Tao Zhu Gong 500 B.C., Assistant to the
Emperor of Yue, 9th Business Principle
Comradeship and trust will emerge naturally when discipline and high
standards are enforced.
Tao Zhu Gong 500 B.C., Assistant to the
Emperor of Yue, 11th Business Principle
Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.
Heber J. Grant
The psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent,
oscillating, spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of
older, lower-order behavior systems to newer, higher-order systems as
man's existential problems change.
Clare W. Graves 1914-1986, American clinical
psychologist and originator of the "Theory of levels of human existence"
in the Futurist (1974)
How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset
values?
Alan Greenspan, Chairman of US
Federal Reserve Board
Where the legal system fails, violence begins.
Hugo de Groot 1583-1645, Dutch
brilliant lawyer and historian in 'De jure belli ac pacis' (About the
law of war and peace), still the basis of modern international law
(1625)
The assiduous merchant, the laborious husbandman, the active mechanic,
and the industrious manufacturer - all orders of men look forward with
eager expectation and growing alacrity to the pleasing reward of their
toils.
Alexander Hamilton 1755-1804, 'father
of the American government'
In a knowledge economy, a good business is a community with a purpose,
not a piece of property.
Charles Handy, Harvard Business
Review, December 2002
Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and
obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the
market economy will function properly.
Václav Havel 1936-, writer, fighter
for human rights and President of Czechoslovakia and later on the Czech
Republic
He only profits from praise who values criticism.
Heinrich Heine 1797-1856, German poet
The British Enlightenment represents "the sociology of virtue," the
French "the ideology of reason," the American "the politics of liberty".
The British moral philosophers were sociologists as much as
philosophers; concerned with man in relation to society, they looked to
the social virtues for the basis of a healthy and human society. The
French had a more exalted mission: to make reason the governing
principle of society as well as mind, to "rationalize, "as is were, the
world. The Americans, more modestly, sought to create a new "science of
politics" that would establish the new republic upon a sound foundation
of liberty.
Gertrude Himmelfarb, American
cultural historian, professor emeritus of history at the Graduate School
of the City University of New York , in The Roads to Modernity (2004)
The issue is the
performance of Capitalism against the promises of
Communism.
Paul G. Hoffman 1891-1974, President
of the Studebaker Corporation and founder of the Committee for Economic
Development in 1942
Most men feel themselves entitled by the weakness or misfortune of
others to inflict further outrages upon them without fear or reprisal;
they take a barbarous pleasure in adding to their afflictions, in making
them feel their superiority, in treating them cruelly, in ridiculing
them.
D'Holbach 1723-1789, German-born
French man of leisure, known as a conversationalist, host, scholar,
secular moralist, and philosopher celebrated for his freely spoken views
on atheism, determinism, and materialism and for his contributions to
Diderot's Encyclopédie, in
'Universal Morality' (1776)
Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes it obstructs
your vision.
Hsi-Tang Chih Tsang 735 – 814,
renowned Zen master
There is some benevolence, however small, infused into our bosom; some
spark of friendship for human kind; some particle of the dove kneaded
into our frame, along with the elements of the wolf and the serpent.
David Hume 1711-1776, Scottish
philosopher in 'A Treatise of Human Nature' (1739)
How nearly equal all men are in their bodily force, and even in their
mental powers and faculties, till cultivated by education.
David Hume 1711-1776, Scottish
philosopher in 'Of the Original Contract' (1741)
That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the
greatest numbers.
Francis Hutcheson 1694-1746, Scottish
philosopher in 'Inquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, sect. 3' (1725)
Morals are too essential to the happiness of man to be risked on the
uncertain combinations of the head. She [nature] laid their foundation
therefore in sentiment, not science.
Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826, Author of
the Declaration of Independence, Anti-Federalist, philosopher and third
President of the United States in 'Writings', p. 874 (1786)
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe -
the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804,
Prussic-German metaphysician and philosopher in 'Critique of Practical
Reason (1788)
When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in
numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it,
when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and
unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have
scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, what ever
the matter may be.
Lord Kelvin 1824-1907, British
scientist
God has many disciples, but few servants.
Thomas a Kempis 1379/1380-1471, Dutch
priest, monk and writer devoted to prayer, simplicity, and union with
God, in'The Imitation of Christ' (1440)
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts,
foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation
that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an
open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1917-1963,
35th president of the United States
My candidate for an ethic to replace the idea of maximizing shareholder
value thinking would be building and sharing wealth. Why? Shareholder
value thinking was always about creating wealth. The terminology got in
the way, however. The very word ‘value’ implies an immediacy that in
most cases should have no place in the conduct of great business
enterprises.
Alan Kennedy, writer and consultant
in ‘The end of shareholder value’-2000
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will
do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946,
English Economist
How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand
those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand
freedom of speech.
Søren Kierkegaard 1813-1855,
Danish existentialist philosopher and theologian
If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious
values -- that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all
reality has spiritual control.
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968,
Baptist civil-rights leader in the US
Give just weight and full measure.
Koran, Surah Cattle, 6:149
As for those that have faith and do good works, God will bestow on them
their rewards and enrich them from his own abundance.
Koran, Surah Women, 4:173
Anything you lose automatically doubles in value.
Mignon McLaughlin, The Second
Neurotic's Notebook, 1966
(contributed by Olaf Keltering)
The crux of the accounting problem with intangibles is that to know the
past, one must know the future.
Baruch Lev, Knowledge Management
Expert, in Intangibles: Management, Measurement and Reporting 2001
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...it has no
survival value; rather, it is one of those things that give value to
survival.
C.S. Lewis 1898-1963, British
novelist
When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my
religion.
Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865, American
President, abolisher of slavery
Hence naturally flows the great variety of opinions concerning moral
rules which are to be found among men, according to the different sorts
of happiness they have a prospect of, or propose to themselves; which
could not be if practical principles were innate, and imprinted in our
minds immediately by the hand of God.
John Locke 1632-1704, English
philosopher, political theorist and founder of Empiricism, in 'Essay
Concerning Human Understanding' (Bk I, Ch 2, Sec 6) (1689)
Everything of value is defenseless.
Lucebert 1924-1994, Dutch poet and
painter
Many men have imagined republics and principalities that never really
existed at all. Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they
ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be
pursues his downfall rather than his preservation; for a man who strives
after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are
so many men who are not good.
Niccolò Machiavelli 1469-1529,
Florentine statesman and realistic political philosopher in Il Principe
(The Prince), Chapter 15, pg. 56 (1513)
A firm’s income statement may be likened to a bikini – what it reveals
is interesting, but what it conceals is vital.
Burton G. Malkiel in A Random Walk
Down Wall Street
THEN leave Complaints: Fools only strive
To make a Great an honest Hive.
T'enjoy the World's Conveniencies,
Be famed in War, yet live in Ease
Without great Vices, is a vain
Eutopia seated in the Brain.
Fraud, Luxury, and Pride must live;
We the Benefits receive.
Bernard Mandeville 1670-1733, A Dutch
doctor who practiced in London in The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves Turn'd
Honest (1705)
Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value,
it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings
forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.
Karl Marx 1818-1883, German Political
Theorist and Social Philosopher
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and lose his
own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 16:26
The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in
which it is overestimated.
Henry Louis Mencken 1880-1956,
American journalist and critic
Man in general seems a deceitful, tricky, dangerous, perfidious animal;
he seems to follow the heat of his blood and passions rather than the
ideas which are given to him in childhood and which are the basis of
natural law and remorse.
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
1709-1751, French physician and philosopher, the earliest of the
materialist writers of the Enlightenment. He has been claimed as a
founder of cognitive science. In 'Discours sur le bonheur' (1779)
To you is granted the power of degrading yourself into the lower forms
of life, the beasts, and to you is granted the power, contained in your
intellect and judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, the divine.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 1463-1494,
Italian Renaissance Neoplatonist philosopher, scholar, and humanist
whose aim was to conciliate religion and philosophy in 'Oratio de hominis
dignitate'
Things only have the value that we give them.
Molière 1622-1673, French actor and
playwright
The value of life is not in the length of days, but in the use we make
of them; a man may live long yet very little.
Michel de Montaigne 1533-1592, French
writer and philosopher
Mankind are influenced by various causes, by the climate, by the
religion, by the laws, by the maxims of government, by precedents,
morals, and customs; whence is formed a general spirit of nations.
Charles de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de
Montesquieu 1689-1755, French philosopher, writer and ideological
co-founder of the American constitution in 'Spirit of the laws' (1748)
The winner of any corporate competition is the company whose moral
purpose best fits the prevailing environment and assets.
Nikos Mourkogiannis, management
consultant in Strategy + Business, Issue 41, Winter 2005
The reward of one who does something lies in something being done for
him. This is considered by God as ma'at. [Note: Ma'at was the name of
the ancient Egyptian social system and also of the principle that forms
individuals into communities and that gives their actions meaning and
direction by ensuring that good is rewarded and evil punished]
Pharao Neferhotep I, XIIIth Dynasty
(ca. 1700 B.C.)
Far better to be aware that the Value Opportunity Gap difference between
current value and potential value is presently in a 50 to 57 percent
range and to know the critical actions necessary to close that GAP, than
to waste time trying to pinpoint the exact underperformance amount. An
insecure CEO might be impressed by an unnecessarily complex valuation
model. For the rest, the dazzle connotes paralysis by analysis, not
progress. Precise future estimates exist only in economist' dreams.
Pragmatic, outperforming top managers emphasize the key actions to
narrow the Value Opportunity Gap.
Peter J. Clark and Stephen Neil,
Value Based Management consultants in:
The Value Mandate, 2001
How much truth can a spirit bear, how much truth can a spirit dare? ...
that became for me more and more the real measure of value.
Friedrich Nietzsche 1844-1900, German
classical scholar, philosopher and critic
Men do not value a good deed unless it brings a reward.
Ovid B.C. 43-18 A.D., Roman Poet
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only
that gives everything its value.
Thomas Paine 1737–1809,
Anglo-American political theorist and writer in 'Common Sense' (1791)
Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness; the
former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the
latter negatively by restraining our vices.
Thomas Paine 1737–1809,
Anglo-American political theorist and writer in 'Common Sense' (1791)
I believe in one God, and no more. I do not believe in the creed
professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek
church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, not by any
church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
Thomas Paine 1737–1809,
Anglo-American political theorist and writer. Opening pages of 'Age of
Reason' (1794)
Thus passes away all man's life. Men seek rest in a struggle against
difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes
insufferable. For we think either of the misfortunes we have or of those
which threaten us. And even if we should see ourselves sufficiently
sheltered on all sides, weariness of its own accord would not fail to
arise from the depths of the heart wherein it has its natural roots and
to fill the mind with its poison.
Blaise Pascal 1623-1662, French
mathematician and philosopher, inventor of the calculator
Our self-interest is a beautiful tool to throw dust in our eyes in a
pleasant way.
Blaise Pascal 1623-1662, French
mathematician and philosopher, inventor of the calculator
A stockbroker urged me to buy a stock that would triple its value every
year. I told him, ''At my age, I don't even buy green bananas.
Claude D. Pepper 1900-1989, U.S.
senator, politician and attorney
Short is the road which leads philosophers to wealth. It is built
in this way: do not multiply your belongings, but restrain our desires.
Francesco Petrarca 1304-1374, Italian
renaissance poet, scholar & humanist, one of greatest figures of Italian
literature in "De Vita Solitaria"
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and
if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.
Philippians 4:8
Alcibiades: But it holds thus, and I shall begin from here to take care
of justice.
Socrates:
I would like you also to continue; but I am shuddering, not from any
mistrust of your nature, but from viewing the strength of the state,
lest it prevail over both me and you.
Plato 427 B.C.-347 B.C., famous ancient
Greek philosopher, in the dialog "Alcibiades"
Know thyself.
Plato 427 B.C.-347 B.C., famous ancient
Greek philosopher, in the dialog "Alcibiades"
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Proverbs 29:18
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the
achievement of one's values.
Ayn Rand 1905 - 1982, US Russian-born
novelist
Self-interest speaks all languages and plays all roles, even that of the
unselfishly.
François La Rochefoucauld 1613-1680,
French writer, famous for Les Maximes, in which he tries to prove that
the entire human acting is based on self-love
The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to
accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value
than what you get.
Jim Rohn
It is therefore quite certain that pity is a natural sentiment which, by
moderating in every individual the activity of self-love, contributes to
the mutual preservation of the entire species. It is pity that carries
us without reflection to the assistance of those we see suffer; pity
that, in the state of Nature, takes the place of Laws, morals, and
virtue, with the advantage that no one is tempted to disobey its gentle
voice…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778,
Swiss-French philosopher, author, political theorist, and composer whose
novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution in Discourse on
Inequality, I.38 (1754)
Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat
with ourselves.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778,
Swiss-French philosopher, author, political theorist, and composer whose
novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution
The truth is that the value we set upon the opinion of others, and our
constant endeavor in respect of it, are each quite out of proportion to
any result we may reasonably hope to attain; so that this attention to
other people’s attitude may be regarded as a kind of universal mania
which every one inherits.
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860, German
post-Kantian philosopher, who considered true philosophy as art, and
accessible to only a few capable minds, in "Quotations on the wisdom of
life", Chapter IV, Section 1, (1886)
The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with
other human beings.
Albert Schweitzer 1875-1965, German
Nobel Peace Prize-winning mission doctor and theologian
Virtue depends partly upon training and partly upon practice; you must
learn first, and then strengthen your learning by action. If this be
true, not only do the doctrines of wisdom help us but the precepts also,
which check and banish our emotions by a sort of official decree.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca 1-65, Stoa
philosopher in "Letters to Lucilius - On the value of advice" (Epistle
XCIV)
Horus (civilization) and Seth (force) are unified by law.
Throne pedestal from Lisht, Sesostris
I, anscient Egyptian pharao of the 12th dynasty, Middle Kingdom, as explained by Jan Assman, Professor of Egyptology at the University
of Heidelberg in 'The Mind of Egypt' (ca. 1950 B.C.)
Thus the wisdom of what rules, and is first and chief in nature, has
made it to be according to the private interest and good of everyone to
work towards the general good; which if a creature ceases to promote, he
is actually so far wanting to himself and ceases to promote his own
happiness and welfare... And thus, Virtue is the good, and Vice the ill
of everyone.
The Third Earl of Shaftesbury
1671-1713, English politician and philosopher in 'An Inquiry Concerning
Virtue, or Merit' (1699)
Plate sin with gold, and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.
William Shakespeare 1564-1616,
Playwright and bard, King Lear, Act 4
All that glitters is not Gold. Often have you heard that told.
William Shakespeare 1564-1616,
Playwright and bard, The Merchant of Venice
The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation; that
away men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
William Shakespeare 1564-1616,
Playwright and bard, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
For every complex problem there is a simple solution that is wrong.
G.B. Shaw 1856-1950, Irish critic and
poet, famous for his 'verbal wit'
Lack of money is the root of all evil.
G.B. Shaw 1856-1950, Irish critic and
poet, famous for his 'verbal wit'
People exaggerate the value of things they haven't got: everybody
worships truth and unselfishness because they have no experience with
them.
G.B. Shaw 1856-1950, Irish critic and
poet, famous for his 'verbal wit'
Currencies fluctuate; commodity prices fluctuate. Why should we expect
earnings to rise in a straight line upward.
William G. Shenkir, University of
Virginia commerce professor who worked for the U.S. FASB in the 1970s
Ethics and religion must not stay at home when we go to work.
Achille Silvestrini, Cardinal of the
Roman Curia, May 20th, 2004, at a congress of the Union of
Industrialists of Rome, organized under the theme "Business, Ethics and
Legality"
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some
principles in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others and
render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from
it except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is pity or compassion,
the emotion which we feel for the misery of others when we either see it
or are made to conceive it in a very lively matter.... By the
imagination we place ourselves in his situation. We enter, as it were,
into his body and become in some measure the same person with him.
Adam Smith 1723-1790, Scottish
philosopher and economist. Opening sentences of :The Theory of Moral
Sentiments, 1759
Every individual endeavors to employ his capital so that its produce
may be of greatest value. He generally neither intends to promote the
public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. He intends only
his own security, only his own gain. And he is in this led by an
invisible hand to promote an end, which has no part of his intention. By
pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of society more
effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
Adam Smith 1723-1790, Scottish
philosopher and economist in: The Wealth of Nations, 1776
The patrimony which every man has in his own labour, as it is the
original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and
inviolable. The patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and
dexterity of his hand; and to hinder him from employing this strength
and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his
neighbour is a plain violation of this most sacred property.
Adam Smith 1723-1790, Scottish
philosopher and economist in: The Wealth of Nations, 1776
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates 469-399 B.C., Ancient Greek
ethicist-philosopher, Apol. 38a
Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.
Socrates 469-399 B.C., Ancient Greek
ethicist-philosopher
As men’s habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one
form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another
to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for
himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged
only by its fruits.
Baruch (or also: Benedictus) de Spinoza
1632-1676, Dutch deductive-rational pantheistic philosopher, founder of
the European Enlightenment in 'A Theologico-Political Treatise' (1670)
You know the value of every merchandise, but you do not know your own
value -- that is stupidity....
The Sufi Path of Love, The Spiritual
Teachings of Rumi
There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no
happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.
Henri David Thoreau 1817-1862,
American poet and philosopher
The principle of self-interest rightly understood is not a lofty one,
but it is clear and sure. It does not aim at mighty objects, but it
attains without excessive exertion all those at which it aims. As it
lies within the reach of all capacities, everyone can without difficulty
learn and retain it. By its admirable conformity to human weaknesses it
easily obtains great dominion; nor is that dominion precarious, since
the principle checks one personal interest by another, and uses, to
direct the passions, the very same instrument that excites them.
The principle of self-interest rightly understood produces no great acts
of self-sacrifice, but it suggests daily small acts of self-denial. By
itself it cannot suffice to make a man virtuous; but it disciplines a
number of persons in habits of regularity, temperance, moderation,
foresight, self- command; and if it does not lead men straight to virtue
by the will, it gradually draws them in that direction by their habits.
If the principle of interest rightly understood were to sway the whole
moral world, extraordinary virtues would doubtless be more rare; but I
think that gross depravity would then also be less common. The principle
of interest rightly understood perhaps prevents men from rising far
above the level of mankind, but a great number of other men, who were
falling far below it, are caught and restrained by it. Observe some few
individuals, they are lowered by it; survey mankind, they are raised.
I am not afraid to say that the principle of self-interest rightly
understood appears to me the best suited of all philosophical theories
to the wants of the men of our time, and that I regard it as their chief
remaining security against themselves. Towards it, therefore, the minds
of the moralists of our age should turn; even should they judge it to be
incomplete, it must nevertheless be adopted as necessary.
Alexis de Tocqueville 1805-1859,
French social philosopher in 'Democracy in America' (1835-1840)(2nd
volume, section 2, chapter 8) a highly positive and optimistic account
of American government and society
We all want to live. And in large part we make our logic according to
what we like. But not having attained our aim and continuing to live is
cowardice. This is a thin dangerous line. To die without gaming one's
aim is a dog's death and fanaticism.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo 1659-1710,
Japanese samurai warrior and Buddhist priest
(contributed by Nate Baber)
To permit a large number of men to live free of charge is to encourage
laziness and all the disorders that follow; it is to render the
condition of the idler preferable to that of the man who works... The
race of industrious citizens is replaced by a vile population composed
of vagabond beggars free to commit all sorts of crimes.
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot 1727-1781,
French economic theorist, controller general of finances and
philosopher, on 'Fondations' in Encyclopédie, VII, 75
October: This is one of the particularly dangerous months to invest in
stocks. Other dangerous months are July, January, September, April,
November, May, March, June, December, August and February.
Mark Twain 1835-1910, American
humorist and writer, famous for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy
you must
have somebody to share it with.
Mark Twain 1835-1910, American
humorist and writer, famous for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
All existing things are really one. We regard those that are beautiful
and rare as valuable, and those that are ugly as foul and rotten The
foul and rotten may come to be transformed into what is rare and
valuable, and the rare and valuable into what is foul and rotten.
Therefore it is said that one vital energy pervades the world.
Consequently, the sage values Oneness.
Chuang Tzu 389-286 B.C., Chinese
interpreter of Taoism
Like migrating gnus the investors follow each other and the analysts.
Sometimes they encounter a ravine on their journey.
ir. drs. Jeroen van der Veer, CEO
Royal Dutch/Shell Group, January 2002
There is only one moral, as there is only one geometry.
Voltaire 1694-1778, French
philosopher, writer and deist satirist, the embodiment of the
18th-century French Enlightenment, a crusader against tyranny and
bigotry.
Religion must be destroyed among respectable people and left to the
canaille large and small, for whom it was made.
Voltaire 1694-1778, French
philosopher, writer and deist, the embodiment of the 18th-century French
Enlightenment, a crusader against tyranny and bigotry.
There is no such thing as absolute value in this world. You can only
estimate what a thing is worth to you.
Charles Dudley Warner 1829-1900,
American writer
And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be
maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence
of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and
experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail
in exclusion of religious principle.
George Washington 1732-1799, the
first President of the United States in his 'Farewell Address' (1796)
While luxury and profaneness have been increasing on one hand, on the
other, benevolence and compassion toward all forms of human woe have
increased in a manner not known before, from the earliest ages of the
world.
John Wesley 1703-1791, British
founder and preacher of the Methodist Church (ca. 1790)
This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered
as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
Western Union internal memo, 1876
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde 1854-1900, Anglo-Irish
dramatist and poet
