Marianne Williamson Quotes

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.

It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience, but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.

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

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.

Speeches by businessmen on social responsibility...may gain them kudos in the short run. But it helps to strengthen the already too prevalent view that the pursuit of profits is wicked.... There is one and only one social responsibility of business-to...engage in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

Being good is good business

The main social responsibility for a company is to win.

We need a new way of doing business to get out of the present crisis ... Absolute greed has come close to bankrupting the world. Thanks to the crisis that certain businesses have dumped on everyone a lot of people are going to suffer on a global scale. All of us must learn. It is all the more important that those business leaders that are left standing try to be a force for good.

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

I was really interested in a pretty simple thing: what happens when someone tries to introduce moral considerations into Wall Street, what happens when someone wants to actually demand of himself and those who work with him that what they do is not just profitable but good and useful.

There is very little evidence that we give a hoot about profit.

Business is correct to defend its right to act in order to produce a vigorous and engaging prosperity. But it is wrong if it forgets that this freedom can only be experienced within the discipline of social responsibility.

Never be seduced into believing it isn't the role of business to tackle the big issues, because it absolutely is.

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.

The business of business should not be about money. It should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed

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

American business needs a lifting purpose greater than the struggle of materialism.

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

There is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

Every business tries to turn this year's success into next year's greater success. It's hard for me to see why Microsoft is sinful to do this. If it's a sin, then I hope all of Berkshire Hathaway's subsidiaries are sinners. Someone whose salary is paid by U.S.taxpayers is happy to dramatically weaken the one place where we're winning big?!

The success of the Starbucks has been based on this balance between profitability and a social conscience. Everywhere we're doing business, were trying to manage the business through the lens of humanity.

In matters of business, no woman stops at integrity.

I never wanted to be a businessman; I was a craftsman and good at working with my hands. At some point, I decided that this company is my best resource. Patagonia now exists to put into practice all the things that smart people are saying we have to do not only to save the planet but to save the economy.

We need a leader who understands the moral case for free enterprise.

I have learned that the ethics of the so-called markets can be different from what we learn at school. In day-to-day life you have stimulus to behave unethically, but in the long term it always pays off to be ethical.