Peter Cooper Quotes

Doing good business - being ethical, being transparent, being caring, implementing values in your business - makes a difference, and you make money at the same time.

I'm a businessman, and I think there's nothing wrong with being a businessman provided you have the right headspace and do good things with the money you make.

Corporate executives and business owners need to realize that there can be no compromise when it comes to ethics, and there are no easy shortcuts to success. Ethics need to be carefully sown into the fabric of their companies.

Despite their good intentions, today's businesses are missing an opportunity to integrate social responsibility and day-to-day business objectives - to do good and make money simultaneously.

Leaders must be reminded that Businesses exist for the service of men.

Any business whose sole purpose is making money is not worth doing. Business must serve a larger purpose.

Businesses can lead with their values and make money, too. You don't have to simply be purely profit-driven. You can integrate social and environmental concerns into a business, be a caring business, be a generous business and still do very well financially.

Profit is not the legitimate purpose of business. The legitimate purpose of business is to provide a product or service that people need and do it so well that it's profitable.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

Look at the Quakers - they were excellent business people that never lied, never stole; they cared for their employees and the community which gave them the wealth. They never took more money out than they put back in.

I am still looking for the modern equivalent of those Quakers who ran successful businesses, made money because they offered honest products and treated their people decently... This business creed, sadly, seems long forgotten.

You can actually make a lot of money and do a lot of good in the world. I don't see those things as being in opposition to one another. I never have.

It is important to remember that all business has an impact on the lives of real people.

So much business is based on the belief that we should do whatever we can within legal limits to make as much money as we can. Ben & Jerry's was based on values, and we try to operate a business that not just sells ice cream but partners with all our stakeholders - whether that's suppliers or customers - to bring about a more sustainable world.

It's important to think good, speak good, and do good. If we want to see positive change in the world, then we need to connect to goodness. I try in everything I do, both in business and philanthropy, to make a positive change and do that by doing good.

Corporations are not capable of doing things out of the goodness of their hearts. They don’t have hearts.

Let’s put common decency ahead of corporate profits.

Business rests squarely on the law of service. It has for its main reliance truth and faith and justice …. It is one of the greatest contributing forces to the moral and spiritual enhancement of the race.

Markets work; morals matter.

A free enterprise system that is not underlaid with values is bankrupt.

You don't have to choose between doing good and doing well. It's a false choice, today more than ever.

I think it's a completely good thing to want to do business, to want to make money and be a success in the marketplace, to get the attention of customers. I'm not in the business of pointing fingers or blaming companies, but there is a limit to everything.

Profit has to be a means to other ends rather than an end in itself.

I have always believed that business should be a force for good.

Good profits simply are not inconsistent with good behavior.