The Quotes canon

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It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. — Adam Smith · 1776The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation...That incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. — Joseph Schumpeter · 1942All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind. — Karl Marx · 1848There is no way of keeping profits up but by keeping wages down. — David Ricardo · 1822Economic progress, in capitalist society, means turmoil. — Joseph Schumpeter · 1942History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition. — Milton Friedman · 1962All 12 quotes →
Laissez faire does not mean: Let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: Let each individual choose how he wants to cooperate in the social division of labor; let the consumers determine what the entrepreneurs should produce. Planning means: Let the government alone choose and enforce its rulings by the apparatus of coercion and compulsion. — Ludwig von Mises · 1949All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind. — Karl Marx · 1848Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave. — James Connolly · 1915Imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism. — Vladimir Lenin · 1917Naturally, the workers are perfectly free; the manufacturer does not force them to take his materials and his cards, but he says to them…"If you don't like to be frizzled in my frying-pan, you can take a walk into the fire." — Friedrich Engels · 1845
Drama4 quotes
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. — Gordon Gekko · 1987Business is war. It's dog eat dog, rat eat rat. If my competitor were drowning, I'd walk over and I'd put a hose right in his mouth. — Ray Kroc · 2016We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. — Blake · 1992You know what capitalism is? Getting fucked! — Tony Montana · 1983
Drama (film)4 quotes
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. — Gordon Gekko · 1987Business is war. It's dog eat dog, rat eat rat. If my competitor were drowning, I'd walk over and I'd put a hose right in his mouth. — Ray Kroc · 2016We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. — Blake · 1992You know what capitalism is? Getting fucked! — Tony Montana · 1983
These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people, and now, that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel. — Abraham Lincoln · 1837We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1937Freedom and incentives unleash the drive and entrepreneurial genius that are the core of human progress. — Ronald Reagan · 1985Civilization and profits go hand in hand. — Calvin Coolidge · 1920
The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation...That incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. — Joseph Schumpeter · 1942Economic progress, in capitalist society, means turmoil. — Joseph Schumpeter · 1942Every piece of business strategy... Must be seen in its role in the perennial gale of creative destruction. — Joseph Schumpeter · 1942
Action1 quote
Everything's got a price, bitch. — Iosef Tarasov · 2014
Everything's got a price, bitch. — Iosef Tarasov · 2014
Comedy1 quote
Think big, think positive, never show any sign of weakness. Always go for the throat. Buy low, sell high. Fear? That's the other guy's problem. Nothing you have ever experienced will prepare you for the unbridled carnage you are about to witness. Superbowl, The World Series—they don't know what pressure is. In this building, it's either kill or be killed. You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute you're up half a million in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don't go to college and they've repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me? — Louis Winthorpe III · 1983
Think big, think positive, never show any sign of weakness. Always go for the throat. Buy low, sell high. Fear? That's the other guy's problem. Nothing you have ever experienced will prepare you for the unbridled carnage you are about to witness. Superbowl, The World Series—they don't know what pressure is. In this building, it's either kill or be killed. You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute you're up half a million in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don't go to college and they've repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me? — Louis Winthorpe III · 1983
Greed is all right... Greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself. — Ivan F. Boesky · 1986
Crime1 quote
You know what capitalism is? Getting fucked! — Tony Montana · 1983
You know what capitalism is? Getting fucked! — Tony Montana · 1983
Laissez faire does not mean: Let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: Let each individual choose how he wants to cooperate in the social division of labor; let the consumers determine what the entrepreneurs should produce. Planning means: Let the government alone choose and enforce its rulings by the apparatus of coercion and compulsion. — Ludwig von Mises · 1949
Neo-noir1 quote
Everything's got a price, bitch. — Iosef Tarasov · 2014
Advancing bourgeois society liquidates memory, time, recollection as irrational leftovers of the past. — Theodor Adorno · 1959
No permanent elevation of a people can be effected without commerce. — David Livingstone · 1861