Quotes & Sayings About Forbes

The Palm is a joint for sadists to entertain masochists. — Malcolm Forbes

There is just no way any management with any intelligence and foresight cannot recognize the value of a corporate image. It is the best, single marketable investment that a company can make. — Malcolm Forbes

The more sympathy you give, the less you need. — Malcolm Forbes

After visiting several of America's most fashionable playgrounds, I have reached the conclusion that men who work hard enjoy life most. The men at such places can be divided into two classes, first, busy men of affairs ... and, second, rich loafers. I was impressed by the obvious enjoyment corporation heads and other important executives were deriving from their vacation activities ... The idle rich fellows, on the other hand, although indulging in exactly the same activities, palpably were bored. — B.C. Forbes

Since you have to do the things you have to do, be wise enough to do some of the things you want to do. — Malcolm Forbes

Now, ideas are the raw material of progress. Everything first takes shape in the form of an idea. But an idea itself is worth nothing. An idea, like a machine, must have power applied to it before it can accomplish anything. The men who have won fame and fortune through having an idea are those who devoted every ounce of their strength and every dollar they could muster to putting it into operation. Ford had a big idea, but he had to sweat and suffer and sacrifice to make it work. — B.C. Forbes

Meaningful truths are never newly discovered; they're just uncovered anew. — Malcolm Forbes

Call the roll in your memory of conspicuously successful [business] giants and, if you know anything about their careers, you will be struck by the fact that almost every one of them encountered inordinate difficulties sufficient to crush all but the gamest of spirits. Edison went hungry many times before he became famous. — B.C. Forbes

That which is useless dies. Animals that fail to serve some useful purpose in the scheme of things slowly but surely become extinct. Let any part of the human body cease to perform its ordained function, and it withers-as when an arm is kept long in a sling. This same decree, that nothing useless is permitted to survive, runs through the mind of the industrial world. — B.C. Forbes

If you don't know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues initials on them and pass them along. When in doubt, route. — Malcolm Forbes

The most basic law of economics?that one cannot get something for nothing. — Sir Henry Roy Forbes Harrod

We must guard against the overreaching hand of big government trying to take away our freedom. And we must always protect the environment in a manner consistent with our values. — Steve Forbes

Real writers-that is, capital W Writers-rarely make much money. Their biggest reward is the occasional reader's response ... Commentators-in-print voicing big fat opinions-you might call us small w writers-get considerably more feedback than Writers. The letters I personally find most flattering are not the very rare ones that speak well of my editorials, but the occasional reader who wants to know who writes them. I always happily assume the letter-writers is implying that the editorials are so good that I couldn't have written them myself. — Malcolm Forbes

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely like exercising authority usually lose it. — Malcolm Forbes

For whatever reason, every project I do becomes sort of a cult, or a cultish show, you know, like 'Battlestar,' or even a film I did years ago, 'Kalifornia,' people refer to it as a cult film. — Michelle Forbes

There is more credit and satisfaction in being a first-rate truck driver than a tenth-rate executive. — B.C. Forbes

One often reads about the art of conversation-how it's dying or what's needed to make it flourish, or how rare good ones are. But wouldn't you agree that the infinitely more valuable rara avis [rare bird] is a good listener. — Malcolm Forbes

In business, there's such a thing as an invaluable person, but no such thing as an indispensable one. — Malcolm Forbes

If you want understanding try giving some. — Malcolm Forbes

Security isn't securities. It's knowing that someone cares whether you are or cease to be. — Malcolm Forbes

White supremacy is not just a social arrangement: it is a race-based faith. — James A. Forbes

The tax code is a monstrosity and there's only one thing to do with it. Scrap it, kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it and hope it never rises again to terrorize the American people. — Steve Forbes

On his Giving Pledge philanthropy: The way I got the message out was to get a copy of FORBES, look down that 400 list and start making phone calls! Bill and Melinda [Gates] did the same thing. So keep publishing
the list so I can milk it. — Warren Buffett

A certain ultra-dignified gentleman of unusual prominence carried himself so stiffly that nobody felt free to call him by his first name. He quarreled with a friend of earlier days and from then on the two never spoke. The day the friend died an associate found the ultra-dignified gentleman staring through the window. When he came out of his reverie, he soliloquized with a sigh, ""He was the last to call me John."" Is any man really entitled to regard himself a success who has failed to inspire at least a goodly number of fellow mortals to greet him by his first name? — B.C. Forbes

McKinney, Texas is the number one place to live in the country. It's certainly the number place to live in Texas according to Forbes and all these other. Wonderfully integrated, it's upscale. — Geraldo Rivera

Inflationary trends are under way. Wage increases, through strikes or threatened strikes, are rampant. Government expenditures are ballooning ominously. Hoarding has contributed unconscionably to price-boosting. The Government should institute measures calculated to arrest inflation. America's commitments are already so mountainous, international and domestic, that the pruning knife should be applied. You and I, all American taxpayers, don't possess limitless resources-our pockets are not bottomless. Curb inflation at every turn! — B.C. Forbes

Obviously, things can get derailed, particularly if, which looks more and more likely, you get a blow-up between Israel and Iran. I think that's a very real probability now. But barring some real blow-up, the U.S. economy will grow, after a slow first quarter, about 3, 3.5 percent this year, far better than it was in 2011. — Steve Forbes

The fellow who isn't fired with enthusiasm is apt to be fired. — B.C. Forbes

Accuse American businessmen of being responsible for radicalism and they would indignantly deny the accusation. Yet, in one fundamental sense, they are responsible. They are responsible in the sense that they have utterly neglected to take part in the work and the organization which precede the choosing of candidates for political office. Local political organizations all over the land are conducted and controlled, as a rule, by politicians ... Businessmen have shirked such responsibilities, leaving an untrammeled field to others less capable of carrying on the administration of government. — B.C. Forbes

The real cure for what ails our health care system today is less government and more freedom. — Steve Forbes

There's one post-Christmas chore I love-writing thank-you letters ... Lots of companies for many reasonable reasons, I guess, have a policy against sending even Christmas cards, never mind things, at Christmastime. But our clan gets a big kick out of opening the Warner-Lambert box containing an assortment of their wares; we argue over which of the boys is to get the Union Oil Co. necktie [and] all the holiday long we play the marvelous Christmas music sent by Goodyear ... None of these things means that Forbes or Forbeses have been had. But all of us like being thought of. — Malcolm Forbes

Consensus is something you have if you cannot have agreement. — Forbes Burnham

It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn. — B.C. Forbes

Some people are so methodical that that is all they are or ever will be. — B.C. Forbes

You can't fool the mirror-what you see is what you are. — Malcolm Forbes

All too often we say of a man doing a good job that he is indispensable. A flattering canard, as so many disillusioned and retired and fired have discovered when the world seems to keep on turning without them. In business, a man can come nearest to indispensability by being dispensable in his current job. How can a man move up to new responsibilities if he is the only one able to handle his present tasks? It matters not how small or large the job you now have, if you have trained no one to do it as well, you're not available; you've made your promotion difficult if not impossible. — Malcolm Forbes

If you can read and don't, you're dumb. — Malcolm Forbes

The art of conversation lies in listening — Malcolm Forbes

Bragging often precedes begging. — B.C. Forbes

There are things that tend to moderate with age. Schizophrenia is somewhat like that. — John Forbes Nash Jr.

The Christmas spirit brings home to us-or should bring home to us-the profound Biblical truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Anything which inspires unselfishness makes for our ennoblement. Christmas does that. I am all for Christmas. — B.C. Forbes

How old are you Johnny" she asked. Sixteen." And what's that-a boy or a man?" He laughed. "A boy in time of peace and a man in time of war. — Esther Forbes

A hug's a happy thing while a shrug's so often destructive. — Malcolm Forbes

To make headway, improve your head. — B.C. Forbes

A shady business never yields a sunny life. — B.C. Forbes

Nothing is sometimes the right thing to say. — Malcolm Forbes

George Lucas, go fuck yourself. I hope you're dead. I hope a fuckin' zombie busted in your house and knocked over your golden Yoda statue right onto your once creative head. These movies are terrible." An — Forbes West

When you make a movie, it's a movie, and things change based on who you put in the movie. And so it's, you know, obviously not exactly your life, but I feel that I did learn a lot about my parents. — Maya Forbes

If you can't do, you'd best shut up about it. — Esther Forbes

I've never had a plan. You look for different actors you want to work with or different subjects you want to explore, or sometimes it's just a momentary fancy. — Michelle Forbes

The camels had strayed far in search of scarce grass. When collected, they displayed a fiendish ingenuity in throwing their loads and tangling themselves up in every possible strap. — Rosita Forbes

People who matter are most aware that everyone else does too. — Malcolm Forbes

Statistically, it would seem improbable that any mathematician or scientist, at the age of 66, would be able through continued research efforts, to add much to his or her previous achievements. However I am still making the effort and it is conceivable that with the gap period of about 25 years of partially deluded thinking providing a sort of vacation my situation may be atypical. Thus I have hopes of being able to achieve something of value through my current studies or with any new ideas that come in the future. — John Forbes Nash

People are not going to reelect Barack Obama. But will the new president govern as a real conservative? We're going to have to apply the heat to make sure. — Steve Forbes

I resolve for 1920 to sit down all by myself and take a personal stock-taking once a month. To be no more charitable in viewing my own faults than I am an viewing the faults of others. To face the facts candidly and courageously. To address myself carefully, prayerfully, to remedying defects. — B.C. Forbes

Scientists ofttimes have the greatest faith in a higher power. The more they dig into, establish facts and figures, the more they marvel about the mystery of it all. — Malcolm Forbes

pants on. "We have to go. We can't let Forbes — Taylor Buck

The difference between towering and cowering is totally a matter of inner posture. — Malcolm Forbes

Meanness demeans the demeaner far more than the demeaned. — Malcolm Forbes

As you get older there shouldn't be anything you won't try. The payoff is that you open up whole new avenues that are fun. It's a misinterpretation of life to live it only in preparation for the next one. To subordinate the one you've got to an indefinite next round is foolish. It's a waste of this life not to live this life. What's next is anybody's guess. — Malcolm Forbes

Forbes did, in fact, break new ground for women...She was an irrepressible and independent traveler who took risky and difficult trips, braved the hostility of the colonial officials and bureaucrats of the British empire, and invaded the male sphere of exploration, using charm, chutzpah--and her extensive network of establishment connections--to get where she wanted to go. (From the Sahara to Samarkand: Selected Travel Writings of Rosita Forbes, 1919-1937) — Margaret Bald

A big cigar in a young face requires the best of both. — Malcolm Forbes

A young financial writer once brought ridicule upon himself by stating that a certain company had nothing to commend it except excellent earnings. Well, there are companies whose earnings are excellent but whose stocks I would never recommend. In selecting investments, I attach prime importance to the men behind them. I'd rather buy brains and character than earnings. Earnings can be good one year and poor the next. But if you put your money into securities run by men combining conspicuous brains and unimpeachable character, the likelihood is that the financial results will prove satisfactory. — B.C. Forbes

I have in hands, now, specimens of bottom from t he Gulf Stream, obtained by Lieutenant Craven, and I can say that they are among the most interesting that I have ever seen. — Edward Forbes

No man can fight his way to the top and stay at the top without exercising the fullest measure of grit, courage, determination, resolution. Every man who gets anywhere does so because he has first firmly resolved to progress in the world and then has enough stick-to-it-tiveness to transform his resolution into reality. Without resolution, no man can win any worthwhile place among his fellow men. — B.C. Forbes

Enlightening editorial writers is even more difficult than educating educators. — Malcolm Forbes

You certainly have a higher quality of life when you are not on the Forbes list. It just means that your security changes, and you're known for the wrong things. — Ronald Burkle

With all thy getting, get understanding, is the banner under which these Forbes editorials have appeared since the first issue of the publication. We have no illusions about what great wealth can do and what it cannot do. We believe in the worthwhileness of striving by all worthy means to attain success and to attain wealth. Simply because we are convinced that no amount of money is worth the sacrifice of one's better instincts, of one's self-respect-of one's soul, if you wish-simply because we are convinced that riches not gained legitimately and decently are not worth having ... — B.C. Forbes

One of my last few vices is coffee, but with a spot of almond or soymilk, it's never tasted better! — Michelle Forbes

Things there are no solution to: Inflation, bureaucracy & dandruff. — Malcolm Forbes

Forbes was highly motivated by Noynoy's words: ... Therefore in order to make this country better, you don't need grandiose platforms, all you have to do is to do your job, and do it well, rightly, and in accordance with the principled objective. — Wilfrido V. Villacorta

America, in the eyes of the world, typifies above all else this quality of initiative. The greatest successes are nearly all the fruit of initiative. Why do we hold in such high esteem the achievements of the Wright brothers? Because they were illustrious examples of initiative and tenacity. And ideas are born of initiative, the children of men and women of initiative. Advancement is applied initiative. Don't imitate. Initiate. — B.C. Forbes

Once in a while there's wisdom in recognizing that the Boss is. — Malcolm Forbes

Over time, there's a very close correlation between what happens to the dollar and what happens to the price of oil. When the dollar gets week, the price of oil, which, as you know, and other commodities are denominated in dollars, they go up. We saw it in the '70s, when the dollar was savagely weakened. — Steve Forbes

Writing is one of the loneliest of the arts; unlike the actor we have no immediate audience and must wait many long months, even years on occasion, for the splatter of applause to reach our ears, if indeed we are not damned by total neglect. — Bryan Forbes

It is not the victory that makes the joy of noble hearts; but the combat. — Charles Forbes Rene De Montalembert

I am a person who sings. I know not everyone is, but that won't keep the Spirit from putting a song in your heart. — James A. Forbes

The Bible says, 'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' Have you a vision? And are you undeviatingly pressing and pushing toward its accomplishment? Dreaming alone will not get you there. Mix your dreams with determination and action. — B.C. Forbes

You have no idea how big the other fellow's troubles are. — B.C. Forbes

Moreover it is becoming the Britons, whether scientific or unscientific, who boast at all fitting occasions of their aptitude to rule the waves, should know something of the population of their saline empire, especially of those parts of it immediately in contact with their terrestrial domain, and the coasts of the Continent to which our United Kingdom appertains. — Edward Forbes

Just look at that Forbes 400. Takes a billion three to get on the Forbes 400 this year. And the aggregate wealth is just staggering. And those people are paying less percentage of their total income to the federal government than their receptionists are [ ... ] I'll bet a million dollars against any member of the Forbes 400 who challenges - me that the average for the Forbes 400 will be less than the average of their receptionists. — Warren Buffett

The saddest face I ever saw on Martin Luther King was at the funeral of the four little girls slain in Birmingham, Alabama. — James A. Forbes

Some days are for living. Others are for getting through. — Malcolm Forbes

How we love to blame others for our misfortunes! Almost every individual who has lost money in stock speculation has on the tip of his tongue an explanation which he trots out to show that it wasn't his own fault at all ... Hardly one loser has the manliness to say frankly, I was wrong. — B.C. Forbes

The Occupy Wall Street project feels like a burning ember that might light the torch of justice and inflame our longing for freedom. — James A. Forbes

Seeing movies about mental illness, a lot of falseness has leapt out at me over the years. So I just focused on what I remembered, the real experience of seeing somebody like that. And as an adult, I've had family members who are bipolar, so I've seen it again. — Maya Forbes

And it would be fair. Everyone will pay the same tax and it will eliminate tax cheaters and corporate shenanigans. — Steve Forbes

Some of the biggest bores I've ever known are men who have been highly successful in business, particularly self-made heads of big companies. Before the first olive has settled into the first martini, they pour the stories of their lives into the nearest and sometimes the remotest ears capturable ... These men have indeed paid the price of success. To rise to the top of a big company often takes a totality of effort, concentration and dedication. Others, too, have to pay part of the price. Wife and children are out of mind even when in sight ... — Malcolm Forbes

The top people of the biggest companies are, surprisingly, often the nicest ones in their company I'm not sure, though, if they got there because they were good guys or that they're now good guys because they can afford to be. — Malcolm Forbes

Pay your people the least possible and you'll get from them the same. — Malcolm Forbes

It was sink or swim for him - and happens he's swimming. — Esther Forbes

If I owned any of these Hot New Issues that have doubled, tripled, quintupled or umptupled within days and in some cases hours after they were issued, I most certainly would grab my fabulous windfall, thank my lucky stars and invest the money. It's utter nonsense to think any newly issued stock is really worth two, ten or 20 times the [offering] price ... A management so stupid as to sell shares [cheap], and an underwriter so obtuse as not to discern the real value, together would provide reason enough for a sensible man to get rid of his shares. — Malcolm Forbes

Let's be cautious about relying so much on material things that we have no energy left for the spiritual aspects of our lives. — James A. Forbes

If you have a job without aggravations, you don't have a job. — Malcolm Forbes

At today's prices for medicines, doctors and hospitals-if the latter are available at any price-only millionaires can afford to be hurt or sick and pay for it. Very few people want socialized medicine in the U.S. But pressure for it is going to appear with the same hurricane force as the demand for pollution control if the medicine men and hospital operators don't take soon some Draconian measures ... At the present rate of doctor fees and hospital costs under Medicare and Medicaid plans [taxpayers] are shovelling in billions with nothing but escalation in sight. — Malcolm Forbes

Love-based parenting elevates the importance of the relationship to the highest position. No homework assignment, no chore, and no social etiquette is ever more important than the parent-child relationship. Maintaining connectedness and attunement, thereby sustaining the balance of love of self and love of child, is the primal outcome of every interaction the parent has with the child. When this is achieved, the other less significant items will take care of themselves. The ultimate challenge in reaching this goal is that children both want and need autonomy (independence), yet they are biologically engineered to be in relationships and to belong (dependence). This clash between the two is compounded by American culture where there is a powerful emphasis on the individual rather than — Heather T. Forbes

It doesn't take much of a rule to measure a mean man. — Malcolm Forbes

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure. — B.C. Forbes

Al Gore, best described by CNN sound tech Mark A. as "amazingly lifelike"; Steve Forbes, with his wet forehead and loony giggle; G.W. Bush's patrician smirk and mangled cant; even Clinton himself, with his big red fake-friendly face and "I feel your pain." Men who aren't enough like human beings even to hate-what one feels when they loom into view is just an overwhelming lack of interest, the sort of deep disengagement that is often a defense against pain. Against sadness. In fact, the likeliest reason why so many of us care so little about politics is that modern politicians make us sad, hurt us deep down in ways that are hard even to name, much less talk about. It's way easier to roll your eyes and not give a shit. You probably don't want to hear about all this, even. — David Foster Wallace

If a pig could pray, it would pray for swill. What do you pray for? — B.C. Forbes