Mark Skousen Quotes

Great nations like great men must keep their word.

The greatest asset, even in this country, is not oil and gas. It's integrity. Everyone is searching for it, asking, 'Who can I do business with that I can trust?'

In politics, all you have is your word.

If a man's handshake is no good all the {legal} paper in the world won't make it good.

Would you want to do business with a person who was 99% honest?

The finest compliment you can pay a man is that his word was as good as gold.

I have always been an honest trader. I come from a school of traders where there was honour in the deal. No contracts, just a handshake and that's it, done. That's the way I prefer to do business but it's not always possible these days, sadly.

I'd rather the handshake for somebody that I can trust than a contract. Because you can read the bloody contract - perhaps if you made a little bit of a mistake writing it - in a way to suit you.

Asking a man if he could be trusted was like asking an unwed girl if she was a virgin. The question mattered, but the asking of it was gross insult.

"My good fellow," retorted Mr. Boffin, "you have my word; and how you can have that, without my honour too, I don't know. I've sorted a lot of dust in my time, but I never knew the two things go into separate heaps."

An honest man's word is as good as his bond.

Don't ever break someone's trust. Once you do, then nobody wants to do business with you.

I'm just in an unfortunate business where if you ask me a question I have to answer it honestly and if I don't answer it truthfully then I'm not respected.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

Keep every promise you make and only make promises you can keep.

Ah! yes, I know: those who see me rarely trust my word: I must look too intelligent to keep it.

You know for me when I promise something I want to deliver. If you don't, you have to disappear.

In the West, you take people at their word.

The third time you say a thing it sounds like a lie.

I'm a man of my word.

Keep your word. Honor commitments, and they will double back to honor you.

It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.

Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.

When you promise something, you must fulfill it.

I try to live with honor, even if it costs me millions of dollars and takes a long time. It's very unusual in Hollywood. Few people are trustworthy - a handshake means nothing to them. They feel they're required to keep an agreement with you only if you're successful or they need you.