Inspirational quotes on business and management
Quotes as a helpful source of inspiration
‘Only quotations remain from the majority of works. Isn’t it better to write down only the quotations from the beginning?’
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Polish poet and aphorist, 1909-1966)
A witty quote can really inspire. Sometimes a few carefully chosen words are enough to provide the impetus, open up new perspectives and change mindsets. We have put together a selection of quotes with a certain relevance to management topics. Let us inspire you!
‘You don’t discover new parts of the world without having the courage to lose sight of old shores.’
(André Gide)
‘When the winds of change blow, some build protective walls, others build windmills.’
(Chinese wisdom)
‘Be the change you want to see in this world’
(Mahatma Gandhi)
‘Of course, I can’t say whether things will get better if they change, but I can say this much: they have to change if they are to be good.’
(Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
‘Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’ll definitely be right.’
(Henry Ford)
‘Don’t dwell on the past, don’t dream about the future. Concentrate on the present moment.’
(Buddha)
‘You don’t see the world as it is, you see the world as you are.’
(Mooji)
‘At carnival, you wear a mask so that you can drop it.’
(Gerhard Uhlenbruck)
‘Only dead fish go with the flow.’
(Campino)
‘No one can save us except ourselves. No one can and no one must. We have to walk the path ourselves.’
(Buddha)
‘Be – don’t try to become.’
(Osho)
‘Tie two blind birds together; they will not be able to fly even though they now have four wings.’
(Rumi)
‘If you want to increase your wealth, you should take bees as an example. They collect honey without destroying the flowers. They are even useful for the flowers. Gather your wealth without destroying its sources and it will increase steadily.’
(Buddha)
‘If you want to know who you were, look at who you are. If you want to know who you will be, look at what you do.’
(Buddha)
‘An eye for an eye – and the whole world will be blind.’
(Mahatma Gandhi)
‘Don’t just think with your head, think with your whole body.’
(Eckhart Tolle)
‘Disappointed by the ape, God created man. After that, he refrained from further experiments.’
(Mark Twain)
‘Success lies in having exactly the skills that are in demand at the moment.’
(Henry Ford)
‘Chopping wood is so popular because you can see the results immediately.’
(Albert Einstein)
‘When only obedience is required and no longer character, then the truth goes and the lie comes.’
(Ödön von Horvath)
‘People are much more likely to believe a lie they have heard a hundred times than a truth that is completely new to them.’
(Alfred Polgar)
‘Many a truth was based on an error.’
(Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
‘Those who give up freedom to gain security will lose both in the end.’
(Benjamin Franklin)
‘Freedom means responsibility; that’s why most people are afraid of it.’
(George Bernard Shaw)
‘A person’s wisdom is not measured by their experiences, but by their ability to make experiences.’
(George Bernard Shaw)
‘Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.’
(René Descartes)
‘It’s not that we don’t have a lot of time available, it’s that we don’t use it.’
(Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
‘Times are changing, and we are changing with them.’
(Ovid)
‘If you stop advertising to save money, you might as well stop your watch to save time.’
(Henry Ford)
‘A pessimist is someone who knows exactly how sad the world can be, while an optimist comes to this realisation anew every day.’
(Peter Ustinov)
‘The optimist declares that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears that this is true.’
(James Branch Cabell)
‘All talk is pointless if there is no trust.’
(Franz Kafka)
‘If someone tells me that their word is as good as their signature, then I always take their signature.’
(Alain Delon)
‘Loud friends are often quiet enemies.’
(Konfuzius)
‘Beautiful women are good for a week, good women are beautiful for a lifetime.’
(Arabic proverb)
‘A simple twig is better for the bird than a golden cage.’
(Chinese proverb)
‘The beetle is a sultan in its hole.’
(Proverb from Egypt)
‘Only in the calm pond is the light of the stars reflected.’
(Chinese proverb)
‘Whoever steals an egg also steals a camel.’
(Arabic proverb)
‘The grass doesn’t grow any faster if you pull on it.’
(African proverb)
‘A dung beetle is a beauty in the eyes of its mother.’
(Proverb from Egypt)
‘He who is silent about the truth speaks the untruth.’
(Arabic proverb)
‘We are just as happy about a trace of spirit in a man as we are about a few words that a parrot gets right.’
(Proverb from Italy)
‘You can’t see the future in the rear-view mirror.’
(Peter Lynch, American investment advisor; fund guru)
‘You shouldn’t want to foresee the future, but make it possible.’
(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-44), French aviator a. writer)
‘The important thing is not to predict the future, but to be prepared for the future. Making assumptions about the future means thinking in advance about possible developments and their consequences.’
(Wisse Dekker (*1924)
Dutch top manager, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of N.V. Philips Glühlampen)
‘Researchers and managers are often blind enough to the future. They don’t realise what a treasure they are holding in their hands.’
(unknown)
‘Higher than the present is the possibility.’
(Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), German philosopher)
‘You only see something where you look, and you only find something where you look.’
(Karlfried Graf Dürckheim)
‘Happiness is not that you can do what you want, but that you always want what you do.’
(Leo N. Tolstoi)
‘Whatever works is allowed.’
(Max Frisch)
‘You see things and ask ‘Why?’, but I dream of things and say ‘Why not?’’
(George Bernard Shaw)
‘Success lies in having exactly the skills that are in demand at the moment.’
(Henry Ford)
‘The secret to success is to be ready for the opportunity when it arises.’
(Benjamin Disraeli)
‘Fear not hard labour, fear idle talk.’
(Chinese proverb)
‘What you want to ignite in others must burn within you.’
(Aurelius Augustinus)
‘The average gives the world its existence, the extraordinary its value.’
(Oscar Wilde)
‘The extraordinary does not happen in a smooth, ordinary way.’
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
‘Management is the most creative of all arts. It is the art of utilising talent correctly.’
(Robert S. Mc Namara)
‘A mighty flame arises from a tiny spark.’
(Dante Alighieri)
‘Roads are created by walking.’
(Spanish idiom)
‘The only way to motivate people is through communication.’
(Lee Iacocca)
‘Man is condemned to freedom.’
(Jean-Paul Satre)
‘You are your own limit. Rise above it!’
(Schamsoddin Mohammad Hafes)
‘How often the most powerful forces burn out because no wind blows on them.’
(Jeremias Gotthelf)
‘You use the present to suppress the past. You push everything into the future in the hope of better times.’
(African observation)