Mark Twain Quotes

We believe there should be a huge area between everything you should do and everything you can do without getting into legal trouble. I don't think you should come anywhere near that line. We don't deserve much credit for this. It helps us make more money. I'd like to believe that we'd behave well even if it didn't work. But more often, we've made extra money from doing the right thing. Ben Franklin said I'm not moral because of it's the right thing to do - but because it's the best policy.

We don't think of ourselves as do-gooders or altruists. It's just that somehow we're trying our best to be run with some sense of moral compass even in a business environment that is growing.

Let goodness go with the doing.

I think you'll make more money in the end with good ethics than bad. Even though there are some people who do very well, like Marc Rich-who plainly has never had any decent ethics, or seldom anyway. But in the end, Warren Buffett has done better than Marc Rich-in money-not just in reputation.

It turns out that doing the right thing, treating people right, is also the right thing for the company.

I have nothing else to say other than I wasn't corrupt, unfair, or greedy. I was smart when it came to making decisions for my company, and I wasn't greedy. I gave to others in charity and donated money to fund programs. I have nothing else to say.

If you are an entrepreneur planning to start your own company, I can't think of a better place to begin than by operating your business by the Golden Rule. Make this a high priority; never make a decision that contradicts the Golden Rule.

If you're going to live in a community, you have to refrain from killing one another and stealing from one another. You must have honor and honesty in your dealings with one another. But I think the deeper thing that we need to do is to become so fully human that we don't grasp at life; we give life away. We give love away. We give being away. That is the ultimate work of religion.

If a business is not ethical, it will fail, perhaps not right away but eventually.

Men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures.

You cannot become great women if you are not also good women. Great women respond generously to their instincts to do good.

If you pretend that business is beyond morality, that's the kind of morality you get.

Refraining from stealing: care with material goods. Undertake for one week to act on every single thought of generosity that arises spontaneously in your heart.

It betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do.

To be good, and do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.

I believe in doing good for good's sake.

Good profits simply are not inconsistent with good behavior.

You could not claim for yourself that which you were not prepared to grant others.

The corporate sector per se is bottom-line oriented. It can be very corrupt and it is not very principled. That is why I don't think it is sufficient just to have voluntary codes of behavior. I am in favor of legislation which helps to ensure that there is an even playing field and rewards those who play by the rules.

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.

Being good is good business

The business conduct of the disciples of wise men is truthful and faithful.... He does not allow himself to be made a surety or a guarantor and does not accept the power of attorney.... He lends money and is gracious. He shall not take away business from his fellow man.

I wouldn't want to manufacture cigarettes. But if I owned - we do own Costco. Do they sell them? Yes. So I don't have a problem owning stock in that. But I just wouldn't want to - I wouldn't want to do it myself. I basically think, if anything is sufficiently antisocial, society should do something about it. But that's a separate question. But - and I don't think there's any company that I have seen that's 100 percent pure.

Companies that model best practices, that model the most upstanding principles, end up as the most profitable. It's not a trade of profits versus principles.

I firmly believe that we're all good people, but sometimes it's hard to understand how to do good.