Value Library

The following is an excerpt from the ABC Perspective - July 2004 - Pg. 12

There is often a great deal of truth in jest. Somehow, through humour, a point is often made quite easily and without discussion. It is my opinion that humour disarms most people and lays the groundwork for a serious thought or opinion to be accepted.

The following list includes ten of my most favourite business quotes. Each one, through humour, I believe, brings home a particular truism which we often take for granted.

1. Business: the art of extracting money from another man’s pocket without resorting to violence.

Max Amsterdam


2. A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.

W.C. Fields


3. Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.

Oliver Wendell Holmes


4. An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today.

Lawrence J. Peter


5. Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs repairing.

Billy Rose


6. A miser grows rich, by seeming poor; an extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.

William Shakespeare


7. Never lend money to a friend. It’s dangerous – it could damage his memory.

Sam Levinson


8. General Motors is not in the business of making cars. General Motors is in the business of making money.

Thomas A. Murphy


9. Buy low, sell high, collect early and pay late.

Dick Levin

and finally


10. If a man runs after money, he’s money-mad; if he keeps it, he’s a capitalist; if he spends it, he’s a playboy; if he doesn’t get it, he’s a ne’er-do-well; if he doesn’t try to get it, he lacks ambition; if he gets it without working for it, he’s a parasite; and if he accumulates it after a lifetime of hard work, people call him a fool who never got anything out of life.

Vic Oliver