There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, read more

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.

Every company's greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company.

Every company's greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company.

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find read more

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it.

A consumer is a shopper who is sore about something.

A consumer is a shopper who is sore about something.

To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution read more

To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in Manchester went broke.

Perhaps the most widespread misunderstanding of economics is that it applies solely to financial transactions. Frequently this leads to statements read more

Perhaps the most widespread misunderstanding of economics is that it applies solely to financial transactions. Frequently this leads to statements that "there are noneconomic values" to consider. There are, of course, noneconomic values. Indeed, there are only noneconomic values. Economics is not a value itself but merely a method of trading off one value against another.

You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, read more

You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it.

It is your people who make the ultimate difference. You put the investment into training the people and then, when read more

It is your people who make the ultimate difference. You put the investment into training the people and then, when you get invited to the party with the big boys, that is a unique selling point.

The rich adopt novelties and become accustomed to their use. This sets a fashion which others imitate. Once the richer read more

The rich adopt novelties and become accustomed to their use. This sets a fashion which others imitate. Once the richer classes have adopted a certain way of living, producers have an incentive to improve the methods of manufacture so that soon it is possible for the poorer classes to follow suit. Thus luxury furthers progress. Innovation "is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public. The luxury today is the necessity of tomorrow." Luxury is the roadmaker of progress: it develops latent needs and makes people discontented. In so far as they think consistently, moralists who condemn luxury must recommend the comparatively desireless existence of the wild life roaming in the woods as the ultimate ideal of civilized life.