Felix Dennis Quotes

The opposite of corporate greed is personal generosity. Government policies that enable the former and prevent the latter are both worthy of protest.

Profitability is a shallow goal if it doesn't have a real purpose, and the purpose has to be share the profits with others.

We justify the greater and greater accumulation of capital because we believe that therefrom flows the support of all science, art, learning, and the charities which minister to the humanities of life, all carrying their beneficent effects to the people as a whole. Unless this is measurably true our system of civilization ought to stand condemned.

Making money and doing good in the world are not mutually exclusive.

Giving is the vital impulse and moral center of capitalism.

With TOMS, I found a way to create sustainable giving and consistently help those who are in need.

I truly believe that philanthropy and commerce can work together.

As a parent and a citizen, I'll take a Bill Gates (or Warren Buffett) over Steve Jobs every time. If we must have billionaires, better they should ignore Jobs's example and instead embrace the morality and wisdom of the great industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

The world needs a person like me so that many other rich people will be able to follow my role model. If they do, many poor people will be helped.

There is the expression of selfishness and there is the expression of selflessness - but economists or theoreticians never touched that part. They said: 'Go and become a philanthropist.' I said, 'No, I can do that in the business world, create a different kind of business - a business based on selflessness.'

I started off with making personal donations and eventually set up my own foundation, VTCY Foundation, now known as Better Malaysia Foundation. My contributions are also made through companies that I own.

I think all philanthropy invests in product innovation, whether in a vaccine or a new kind of product of one sort or another, and I think we'll all continue to do that.

In the rest of the world, rich people will give a donation, and businessmen give to charities. But in Mexico, the execution capacity of what we call the social sector is missing. I find it much more effective to set up the actual social organisation and then fund it with my money.

I believe in humanitarian capitalism, and there are good people on Wall Street.

The extraordinary genius of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie 100 years ago was their recognition that the great wealth they had amassed could be put to public good and used to solve the complex problems for which there were no other sources of capital.

The billionaire who sits on his money and doesn't do anything for the common good - I'm not interested in that person.

The responsibility of philanthropy rests with us. The wealthier we are, the more powerful we get. We cannot put the entire onus on the government.

I believe that we all need to do charitable work. It should be taken seriously in the area of education, as someone from the industry.

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.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

The future of TOMS is really creating a whole new business model of this one-for-one giving and expanding the TOMS model from shoes into other products as well.

I learned to see myself and my role as a capitalist... as somebody who's trying to harness, for myself and for society, the power of greed and the power of the will to acquire into something that makes the world a better place. That's the version of capitalism that we want.

You have to understand: the narrative that people have about business and capitalism is that they are fundamentally selfish, greedy, and exploitative. Of course, I don't agree with that narrative.

To the capitalists we appeal to use their wealth, as many of their order already do, as a great national trust, and not for selfish purposes alone.

Over the years, we have gone beyond our businesses to take up philanthropic projects in diverse areas - from education to health care to skilling.