Business Quotes

It was a fundamental principle of the Gradgrind philosophy that everything was to be paid for. Nobody was ever on any account to give anybody anything, or render anybody help without purchase. Gratitude was to be abolished, and the virtues springing from it were not to be. Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter. And if we didn't get to Heaven that way, it was not a politico-economical place, and we had no business there. ~ Hard Times by Charles Dickens "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" ~ A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Fine, large, meaningless, general terms like romance and business can always be related. They take the place of thinking, and are highly useful to optimists and lecturers. ~ The Job by Sinclair Lewis "Simple, generous goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us." ~ Little Men by Louisa May Alcott It was the incarnation of blind and insensate Greed. It was a monster devouring with a thousand mouths, trampling with a thousand hoofs; it was the Great Butcher--it was the spirit of Capitalism made flesh. ~ The Jungle by Upton Sinclair But paying is part of the game of life: it is the joy of buying that we crave. ~ The Battle Of The Strong by Gilbert Parker "A man can well afford to be as bold as brass, my good fellow, when he gets gold in exchange!" ~ Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens "Why should I disguise what you know so well, but what the crowd never dream of? We companies are all birds of prey; mere birds of prey. The only question is, whether in serving our own turn, we can serve yours too; whether in double-lining our own nest, we can put a single living into yours." ~ Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens There is nothing namable but that some men will undertake to do it for pay. ~ Billy Budd by Herman Melville The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself. There is no other principle distinctly, certainly, and consistently maintained through all its narrow turnings. ~ Bleak House by Charles Dickens