Business Ethics Quotes
Top 40 Business Ethics Quotes
No 1 (Best quote!)
The superior man understands righteousness; the inferior man understands profit.
- Confucius (551–479 BC) Chinese
philosopher, pictured right
No 2
What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?,
- Jesus (c4 BC-c30 AD), founder
of Christianity.
No 3
Try not to become a man of success but try to become a man of value.
- Albert
Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American scientist (pictured right)
No 4
Better a little with righteousness than great revenues without right
(Book of Proverbs 16:8)
- the Bible.
No 5
What matters is whether your soul is harmed by what you do.
- Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965),
pictured right, German doctor, missionary and philosopher
No 6
Policy sits above conscience.
(First Stranger in Timon of
Athens)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
Gratiano also says in Shakespeare's The Merchant of
Venice :
You have too much respect upon the world: They lose it that do buy it with much care.
No 7
Greed is all right…Greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.
- Ivan F. Boesky (1937- ), American businessman, pictured right
Gordon Gekko (in the film Wall Street, pictured right) said something
similar:
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.
No 8
It’s all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.
Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, pictured right) in the film Wall Street (1987) ,pictured right
No 9
The business of business should not just be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about
public good, not private greed.
- Anita Roddick (1942-
2007), founder of the Body Shop, the British cosmetics chain, pictured right.
No 10
Capital must be propelled by self-interest; it cannot be enticed by benevolence.
- Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English economist, pictured right
No 11
The company must not throw away money on huge bonuses for executives or other frivolities but must share its
fate with the workers.
- Akio Morita (1921-1999), co-founder of Sony,
pictured right.
No 12
To be good in business is to be a good human being.
- Robert Solomon, pictured right, in Ethics and Excellence (1992)
No 13
Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like.
- Edward, Lord Thurlow (1731–1806) English lawyer and politician, pictured right
J. K. Galbraith (1908-2006), pictured right, said
something similar in The New Industrial State (1967):
Individuals have souls; corporations are notably soulless.
No 14
Profits must come through public confidence, and public confidence is given to any merchant in proportion to the
service which he gives to the public.
- J.C. Penney (1875-1971),
co-founder of the American department store, J.C. Penney, pictured right.
No 15
If we have to cheat to win then we’d better think twice about what we’re doing.
- Kenneth Blanchard (pictured right above) and
Norman Vincent Peale (pictured right), The Power of Ethical Management (1988).
No 16
I believe in God, family and McDonald’s, and in the office that order is reversed.
- Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald’s), pictured right.
No 17
Ethics in business (or anywhere else) starts with a person.
- Bob Greenleaf (American
management writer), pictured right.
No 18
No legacy is so rich as honesty.
(Mariana in All’s Well That Ends Well).
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
No 19
Organizations, like men, if they are to command respect and grow, must have a sense of honour and must fulfil
their promises.
- Mahatma ( Mohandas)
Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian leader and philosopher, pictured right.
No 20
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the
wickedest of men will do the wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
- John Maynard Keynes (1889-1945), English economist
(pictured right).
No 21
There never was, never has been, never will
be, room for the ruthless exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few.
- Harry S. Truman,
American president 1945-53 (pictured right).
No 22
I’ve got just as much conscience as any man in business can afford to
keep.
(Mr. Haley, the slave trader, in Uncle Tom's Cabin)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96),
American writer, pictured right
No 23
Capitalism was doomed ethically before it was doomed economically, a long time ago.
(from Cancer Ward, 1968)
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008), Russian writer, pictured right.
No 24
Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.
(the Duke in Measure for
Measure)
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright,
pictured right
No 25
Man above all institutions!
- William Lloyd
Garrison (1805-79), American abolitionist (pictured right)
No 26
Dulled conscience, irresponsibility and ruthless self-interest already reappear.
Such symptoms of prosperity may become portents of disaster!
- Franklin D.
Roosevelt (1882-1945), American president 1933-45 (pictured right).
No 27
We cannot abdicate our conscience to an organization, nor a government.
- Albert
Schweitzer (1875-1965), pictured right, German doctor, missionary and philosopher
No 28
Do other men for they would do you. That’s the true business precept
(Jonas Chuzzlewit in Martin Chuzzlewit).
- Charles Dickens (1812–70),
English novelist, pictured right
No 29
Honour sinks where commerce long prevails
- Oliver Goldsmith (1730-74), Irish poet, pictured right (from his 1764 poem, The
Traveller)
No 30
The great development of industrialism means there must be an increase in the
supervision exercised by the Government over business enterprise.
- Theodore
Roosevelt (1858-1919), American president 1901-9 (pictured right).
No 31
Avarice, the spur of industry.
- David Hume (pictured right),
Scottish philosopher, in his essay, Of Civil Liberty (1742)
No 32
We have a mantra: don't be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers,
for everyone.
- Larry Page (1973- ), co-founder of Google (pictured
right)
No 33
When bad men combine, the good must associate.
- Edmund Burke (1729-97),
Irish-born British Member of Parliament (pictured right).
No 34
Profit is the measure of right.
- Thomas
Hobbes (1588-1679), English philosopher (pictured right).
No 35
By a lie a man throws away and, as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man.
- Immanuel
Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher (pictured right).
No 36
Each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all
humanity.
- Marie Curie (1867-1934),
Polish-born French physicist (pictured right).
No 37
Unless we do our duty to those whom we employ, they will never learn to do their duty to us.
(David talking to Dora in David
Copperfield).
- Charles Dickens (1812-70),
pictured right, English writer
No 38
If I lose my honour, I lose myself,
(Mark Antony. in Antony and
Cleopatra)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
Pompey also comments in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
Tis not my profit that does lead my honour.
No 39
Men of good will. That’s all there is between us and the devil.
- Kenny O’Donnell (in the 2000 film Thirteen Days), pictured right.
No 40
It is vision and moral responsibility that, in the final analysis, define the manager.
- Peter Drucker (pictured right) in
The Practice of Management
(1954)
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