110 Business Quotes For Inspiration

In the ever-evolving world of business, a spark of inspiration can make all the difference. Whether you’re an entrepreneur embarking on a new venture or a seasoned executive navigating through challenges, the right words at the right time can provide invaluable motivation. To help ignite that spark, we've curated a collection of the top 110 business quotes designed to inspire and invigorate. These quotes, from some of the most successful and insightful minds in business, provide timeless wisdom and encouragement to keep you pushing forward towards your goals. Join us on this journey to uncover the gems of inspiration that can fuel your drive and ambition.

1. “Advertising is legitimised lying.” - H.G. Wells

2. “To become successful, one must put themselves in the paths of giants!” - Lillian Cauldwell

3. “Today, brands are not the preserve of marketing department. Brands are too important to be left to the marketing department - or any other 'department,' come to that. Organizational ghettoes do not create vibrant world-changing brands.” - Thomas Gad

4. “My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's.” - Oscar Wilde

5. “There's no luck in business. There's only drive, determination, and more drive.” - Sophie Kinsella

6. “sejak bekerja di majalah, kami mengerti Valentine adalah momen dagang....Korbannya tentu remaja-remaja naif, orang-orang melankolis, yang tidak sadar uangnya dirampok siang-siang.” - Syahmedi Dean

7. “A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” - Henry Ford

8. “Don’t worry, I’m not quitting. I’ve decided I’m going to stay andmake his life a living hell while I run his business into the ground.--Kim to Abe” - Devon Rhodes

9. “Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does.” - Jane Austen

10. “My advice was to start a policy of making reversible decisions before anyone left the meeting or the office. In a startup, it doesn’t matter if you’re 100 percent right 100 percent of the time. What matters is having forward momentum and a tight fact-based data/metrics feedback loop to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions. That’s why startups are agile. By the time a big company gets the committee to organize the subcommittee to pick a meeting date, your startup could have made 20 decisions, reversed five of them and implemented the fifteen that worked.” - Steven Gary Blank

11. “Then, in the 1980's, came the paroxysm of downsizing, and the very nature of the corporation was thrown into doubt. In what began almost as a fad and quickly matured into an unshakable habit, companies were 'restructuring,' 'reengineering,' and generally cutting as many jobs as possible, white collar as well as blue . . . The New York Times captured the new corporate order succintly in 1987, reporting that it 'eschews loyalty to workers, products, corporate structures, businesses, factories, communities, even the nation. All such allegiances are viewed as expendable under the new rules. With survival at stake, only market leadership, strong profits and a high stock price can be allowed to matter'.” - Barbara Ehrenreich

12. “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” - Charles Dickens

13. “The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via Twitter is to never use the words "engage," "honestly," or "marketplace.” - Jeffrey Zeldman

14. “That's the positive aspect of trade I suppose. The world gets stirred up together. That's about as much as I have to say for it.” - Isabel Hoving

15. “The purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline.” - Jim Collins

16. “I used to use business to make money. But I've learned that business is a tool. You can use it to support what you believe in.” - Po Bronson

17. “The truth is that banks are the last feudal kingdoms, their rulers omnipotent, divine warlords. Their key lieutenants are 'ronin' (wandering mercenary samurai) who roam financial markets ready to ally themselves to any warlord for a share of plunder. This is not the place to apply the latest management theory.” - Satyajit Das

18. “Accountants are in the past, managers are in the present, and leaders are in the future.” - Paul Orfalea

19. “To me, the conclusion that the public has the ultimate responsibility for the behavior of even the biggest businesses is empowering and hopeful, rather than disappointing. My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong, admirable or selfish, a good guy or a bad guy. My conclusion is instead a prediction, based on what I have seen happening in the past. Businesses have changed when the public came to expect and require different behavior, to reward businesses for behavior that the public wanted, and to make things difficult for businesses practicing behaviors that the public didn't want. I predict that in the future, just as in the past, changes in public attitudes will be essential for changes in businesses' environmental practices.” - Jared Diamond

20. “If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.” - John Gottman (

21. “Oh what a wanker I am the greatest wanker of 'em all!” - Boris Johnson

22. “Learn from the past, prepare for the future, and perform in the moment." (Moments: Making Your Life Count For What Matters Most, Mike Van Hoozer)” - Mike Van Hoozer

23. “When you’re busy, avoid taking the quickest action. Instead make the extra effort to truly serve the customer.” - Marilyn Suttle

24. “For every dilemma, find at least three or four possible solutions. The creative process leads to better results.” - Marilyn Suttle

25. “If you take the approach of “earning” your customers’ business every day and treating them well, they’re less likely to try someone else.” - Marilyn Suttle

26. “Get in touch with your passion and put it to work at work.” - Marilyn Suttle

27. “People who work in an environment where doing their best is recognized have a better chance of feeling good about their work.” - Marilyn Suttle

28. “Education is what you get from reading the small print; experience iswhat you get from not reading it.” - Common Sense

29. “More importantly, our software worked. I don't just mean that it didn't bump, or that it performed according to the written specifications, or that it was efficient in producing reports. It really worked” - Eliyahu M. Goldratt

30. “A pickpocket is obviously a champion of private enterprise. But it would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that a pickpocket is a champion of private property. The point about Capitalism and Commercialism, as conducted of late, is that they have really preached the extension of business rather than the preservation of belongings; and have at best tried to disguise the pickpocket with some of the virtues of the pirate.” - G.K. Chesterton

31. “Both terrorism and insurance sell fear -- and business is business” - Liam McCurry

32. “A good golfer’s métier is his or her golfing skill.A great golfer’s métier is his or her golfing skill, coupled with the mastery of good sportsmanship, rendering him or her an ambassador for the sport.” - Lorii Myers

33. “Anyone who likes or hates Dana White should take a look at this.” - June White

34. “Every telecomm company is as big a corporate welfare bum as you could ask for. Try to imagine what it would cost at market rates to go around to every house in every town in every country and pay for the right to block traffic and dig up roads and erect poles and string wires and pierce every home with cabling. The regulatory fiat that allows these companies to get their networks up and running is worth hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars.If phone companies want to operate in the “free market,” then let them: the FCC could give them 60 days to get all their rotten copper out of our dirt, or we’ll buy it from them at the going scrappage rates. Then, let’s hold an auction for the right to be the next big telecomm company, on one condition: in exchange for using the public’s rights-of-way, you have to agree to connect us to the people we want to talk to, and vice-versa, as quickly and efficiently as you can.” - Cory Doctorow

35. “This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! I am awaked almost every night by the panting of the locomotive. It interrupts my dreams. There is no sabbath. It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once. It is nothing but work, work, work. I cannot easily buy a blank-book to write thoughts in; they are commonly ruled for dollars and cents. An Irishman, seeing me making a minute in the fields, took it for granted that I was calculating my wages. If a man was tossed out of a window when an infant, and so made a cripple for life, or scared out of his wits by the Indians, it is regretted chiefly because he was thus incapacitated for—business! I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.” - Henry David Thoreau

36. “In business, three things are necessary: knowledge, temper, and time.” - Owen Felltham

37. “Every man has a specific skill, whether it is discovered or not, that more readily and naturally comes to him than it would to another, and his own should be sought and polished. He excels best in his niche - originality loses its authenticity in one's efforts to obtain originality.” - Criss Jami

38. “The most important thing in business is a persona, Nico,' he was fond of saying. 'People want to know immediately what they're dealing with. And when they think about you, you've got to stand out in their minds--like one of those characters in a novel.” - Candace Bushnell

39. “We're interested in the mass-merchandising of anything. If there was a market in mass-produced portable nuclear weapons, we'd market them too” - Alan Sugar

40. “Many companies expect loyal customers without providing loyal service. This has been the visionary failure of countless corporations.” - Steve Maraboli

41. “It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.” - Isaac Asimov

42. “If you use a philosophy education well, you can get your foot in the door of any industry you please. Industries are like the blossoms on a tree while philosophy is the trunk - it holds the tree together, but it often goes unnoticed.” - Criss Jami

43. “You may not attain the highest height with one leap but my dear; you will reach your destination.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

44. “Your decision not to join the crowd may be what God is waiting for to grant you revelation on how to deliver your family, your country, business, profession or even your church!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

45. “God rewards every act of obedience to His Will.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

46. “Another way of remaining in intimacy with God is by remaining in His presence.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

47. “The most radical and far-reaching solutions often need rethinking of processes and deep questioning of the status quo-and these are hard.” - Bill Price

48. “Your words are powerful so what you say goes a long way to either establish or destroy you; this is why you should say things that God has said concerning you, not things that situations or circumstances say.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

49. “Don't say negative things about your spouse and children.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

50. “Create your world with God's Word in your mouth just say it and it will be accomplished!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

51. “Don't die without fulfilling your purpose.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

52. “For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

53. “My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people.” - Steve Jobs

54. “The biggest mistake we could ever make in our lives is to think we work for anybody but ourselves.” - Brian Tracy

55. “The future belongs to the competent. It belongs to those who are very, very good at what they do. It does not belong to the well-meaning.” - Brian Tracy

56. “Read an hour every day in your chosen field. This works out to about one book per week, fifty books per year, and will guarantee your success.” - Brian Tracy

57. “Think continally about what you want, not about the things you fear.” - Brian Tracy

58. “The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life.” - Brian Tracy

59. “I don,t just want success for my self ,I want my success to benefit others .Osman Gulum” - Osman Gulum

60. “remember when God has answered you, it no longer matters who has been against you but for Him to answer you and change your story, you have to make up your mind to disobey the wrong order, change the status quo and BE DIFFERENT!” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

61. “Don't just float through life; don't just agree to anything and everything, have a course you are known for at all times.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

62. “Do little things every day that no one else seems to want to do, be patient, and success will find you.” - Brandi L. Bates

63. “Until you understand your customers - deeply and genuinely - you cannot hope to serve them” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

64. “What would be the natural thing? A man goes to college. He works as he wants to work, he plays as he wants to play, he exercises for the fun of the game, he makes friends where he wants to make them, he is held in by no fear of criticism above, for the class ahead of him has nothing to do with his standing in his own class. Everything he does has the one vital quality: it is spontaneous. That is the flame of youth itself. Now, what really exists?""...I say our colleges to-day are business colleges—Yale more so, perhaps, because it is more sensitively American. Let's take up any side of our life here. Begin with athletics. What has become of the natural, spontaneous joy of contest? Instead you have one of the most perfectly organized business systems for achieving a required result—success. Football is driving, slavish work; there isn't one man in twenty who gets any real pleasure out of it. Professional baseball is not more rigorously disciplined and driven than our 'amateur' teams. Add the crew and the track. Play, the fun of the thing itself, doesn't exist; and why? Because we have made a business out of it all, and the college is scoured for material, just as drummers are sent out to bring in business."Take another case. A man has a knack at the banjo or guitar, or has a good voice. What is the spontaneous thing? To meet with other kindred spirits in informal gatherings in one another's rooms or at the fence, according to the whim of the moment. Instead what happens? You have our university musical clubs, thoroughly professional organizations. If you are material, you must get out and begin to work for them—coach with a professional coach, make the Apollo clubs, and, working on, some day in junior year reach the varsity organization and go out on a professional tour. Again an organization conceived on business lines."The same is true with the competition for our papers: the struggle for existence outside in a business world is not one whit more intense than the struggle to win out in the News or Lit competition. We are like a beef trust, with every by-product organized, down to the last possibility. You come to Yale—what is said to you? 'Be natural, be spontaneous, revel in a certain freedom, enjoy a leisure you'll never get again, browse around, give your imagination a chance, see every one, rub wits with every one, get to know yourself.'"Is that what's said? No. What are you told, instead? 'Here are twenty great machines that need new bolts and wheels. Get out and work. Work harder than the next man, who is going to try to outwork you. And, in order to succeed, work at only one thing. You don't count—everything for the college.' Regan says the colleges don't represent the nation; I say they don't even represent the individual.” - Owen Johnson

65. “Nothing is illegal so long as you correct it before the SEC catches it.” - Ali Sheikh

66. “That’s the problem with any ‘simple truth’—it always takes a gaggle of complete idiots or a team of all-knowing geniuses to miss it.” - Ali Sheikh

67. “A sense of entitlement is a cancerous thought process that is void of gratitude and can be deadly to our relationships.” - Steve Maraboli

68. “We're still family-owned, which keeps life a whole lot simpler. When my wife and kids and I decide to make a business move, we don't have to ask Wall Street about it.” - David Green

69. “But pecuniary interest is clearly not in your nature. How quaint. I have written about people who don't care for money, but I never expected to meet one. Therefor I conclude that the difficulty concerns integrity. People whose lives are not balanced by a healthy love of money suffer from an appauling obsession with personal integrity." - Vida Winter” - Diane Setterfield

70. “There are roads which must not be followed, armies which must not be attacked, towns which must not be besieged, positions which must not be contested, commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.” - Sun Tzu

71. “The true start-up of a business is what happens before you start-up.” - Michael E. Gerber

72. “A confident woman wears a smile and has this air of comfortability and pleasantness about her.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

73. “Maturity of a woman is not in her age or size for age is just a number and size is figure.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

74. “A matured woman is therefore a responsible woman irrespective of her age, status and qualification.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

75. “A responsible woman sees and accepts only the best in a given situation.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

76. “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity” - Sun Tzu

77. “If you rob too much from one person, it becomes murder. If you steal little by little, it looks like business. Just find a way to refine it. The Internet has made it possible to connect to the whole world via one platform. Steal a penny from each person, call it service charge and you will be a millionaire. The volume makes a difference.” - Ravindra Shukla

78. “You're better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole.” - David Heinemeier Hansson

79. “When you’re in another country, remember to do as the locals do, since it is your ways that may seem strange of offensive to them.” - Tracey Wilen

80. “In Chinese business culture, humility is a virtue.” - Stefan H. Verstappen

81. “Never mix business with religion, or you might end up losing your testimony when the business agreement is no longer something you or Christ would put up with.” - Shannon L. Alder

82. “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” - Peter F. Drucker

83. “Imagine going to work every day to do only and exactly what you love!! All the work gets done because of the abundant diversity of your team. Different skills, interests and talents are woven together into a whole that is much greater than the sum of the parts!” - Denise Moreland

84. “He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.” - Sun Tzu

85. “Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.” - Sun Tzu

86. “We have little choice but to move beyond quality and seek remarkable, connected, and new. Remarkable, as you've already figured out, demands initiative.” - Seth Godin

87. “Business is as old as life. There is no living being that does not have a business.” - Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

88. “What would you do if you weren't afraid?” - Sheryl Sandberg

89. “We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” - Sheryl Sandberg

90. “Invest in your knowledge and future! Especially if you got kids, you don't want them going through life struggling trying to find jobs to survive and dealing with managers that don't know how to act because of their position, you don't want them to go through what you went through.... If you live day by day then you wont have something to look forward to." -Robert RiveraNew King James VersionProverbs 13:22- A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” - Robert Rivera

91. “I say, 'Get me some poets as managers.' Poets are our original systems thinkers. They contemplate the world in which we live and feel obligated to interpret, and give expression to it in a way that makes the reader understand how that world runs. Poets, those unheralded systems thinkers, are our true digital thinkers. It is from their midst that I believe we will draw tomorrow's new business leaders."--Sidney Harman, CEO Multimillionaire of a stereo components company” - Daniel H. Pink

92. “Contract law is essentially a defensive scorched-earth battleground where the constant question is, “if my business partner was possessed by a brain-eating monster from beyond spacetime tomorrow, what is the worst thing they could do to me?” - Charles Stross

93. “Ride higher in life unto the higher life.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

94. “Life is beautiful if you take the best option.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

95. “Decide to be rich! Hate poverty strong.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

96. “Sow good seeds for a good yield.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

97. “You have been called to a life of blessing, don`t descend to that of curses.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

98. “Shun darkness and evil vices for they that embrace them wear off with time!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

99. “The giver is the blessed! The receiver stands still.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

100. “Desire to impact lives! Change destinies and make dreams come true.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

101. “If those who are sent to draw water begin by drinking themselves, the army is suffering from thirst. [One may know the condition of a whole army from the behavior of a single man.]” - Sun Tzu

102. “When the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak, the result is INSUBORDINATION.” - Sun Tzu

103. “if you fight with all your might,  there is a chance of life; where as death is certain if you cling to your corner” - Sun Tzu

104. “Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.” - Sun Tzu

105. “Danger has a bracing effect.” - Sun Tzu

106. “At first, then, exhibit the coyness of a maiden,  until the enemy gives you an opening; afterwards emulate the rapidity of a running hare, and it will be too late for the enemy to oppose you.” - Sun Tzu

107. “Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.” - Sun Tzu

108. “The best way to kill competition is to partner it” - siddharth joshi

109. “If you want things to change, you must change. If you want things to get better, you must get better.” - Ted Atoka

110. “To make a decision, all you need is authority. To make a good decision, you also need knowledge, experience, and insight.” - Denise Moreland