A Pound of Perhaps

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Nine out of ten economic laws are economic laws only till they are found out. – Robert Lynd




Economics is a subject that does not greatly respect one’s wishes. – Nikita Khrushchev



The dynamo of our economic system is self-interest which may range from mere petty greed to admirable types of self expression. – Felix Frankfurter



Whatever you have, you must either use or lose. – Henry Ford



During the first period of a man’s life the greatest danger is: not to take the risk. – Soren Keirkegaard



The worst financial risks are those that think the world owes them a living. – anonymous



A pinch of probability is worth a pound of perhaps. – James Thurber

Power is Always Insolent

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What you cannot enforce, do not demand. – Sophocles

You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power – he’s free again. – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Power acquired by guilt has seldom been directed to any good end or useful purpose. – Cornelius Tacitus

Power is always right, weakness always wrong. Power is always insolent an despotic. – Noah Webster

If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business. – B.C. Forbes

In the simplest terms, a leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up and goes. – John Erskine

Henry Ford could get anything out of men because he just talked and would tell them stories. He’d never say, “I want this done!” He’d say, “I wonder if we can do it.” – George Brown

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A Radical New World of Discontinuity

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Men despise great projects when they do not feel themselves capable of great success. – Marquis de Vauvenargues




One must change one’s tactics every ten years if on wishes to maintain one’s superiority. – Napoleon Bonaparte.



We are entering a very radical world of discontinuities. – Eugene Cafiero



If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. - Albert Einstein



Henry Ford was a thinker; he wasn’t a repeater. – W.J. Cameron



Understanding is the beginning of approving. – Andrew Gide



I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right. – Albert Einstein

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We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them. – Erich Fromm




The cure for “materialism” is to have enough for everybody and to spare. When people are sure of having what they need they cease to think about it. – Henry Ford



In the field of marketing and advertising, statistics are like bikinis; they reveal a good deal that is both interesting and instrutive, but they usually conceal what is really vital. – Harry Henry



How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt? – Harry S. Truman



It is now proved beyond doubt that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics. – Fletcher Knebel



A statistician is one who collects data and draws confusions. – Hyman Maxwell Berston

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts – for support rather than for illumination. – Andrew Lang

Darkly Comical Quotes

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When a business firm attempts to mold its whole policy to meet the prices of its competitor that business is entering a labyrinth, the center of which is the chamber of despair. Highest quality never can be given nor obtained at the lowest prices. If a price must be sacrificed, quality must be sacrificed. If quality is sacrificed society is not truly served. – H. T. Garvey

The political machine triumphs because it is united minority acting against a divided majority. Will Durant

Just as you are unconsciously influenced by outside advertisement, announcement, and appeal, so you can vitally influence your life from within by autosuggestion. The first thing each morning and the last thing each night, suggest to yourself specific ideas that you wish to embody in your character and personality. Address such suggestions to yourself, silently or aloud, until they are deeply impressed upon your mind. – Grenville Kleiser

He that respects himself is safe from others; he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce. – Longfellow

He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius. – Simms

The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable or any we have, and therefore should be secured, because they seldom return again. – Locke

The object of living is work, experience, and happiness. There is joy in work. All that money can do is buy us some one else’s work in exchange for our own. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something. – Henry Ford

To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul. – Cicero