Perot Quotes & Sayings

I remember seeing Amy Sedaris in a stint where she played somebody's alcoholic mother in one scene and in the next she was Ross Perot. I remember thinking she was so awesome. — Stephnie Weir

While we share the same set of values, we can - and do - have different business interests. Dad has been there to give me career advice along the way, but he has always let me call the play. — Ross Perot Jr.

We have to succeed, so we will. — Ross Perot

I honestly believe I'd make one of the worst elected officials in the history of this country. — Ross Perot

I like basketball, but please don't ask me basketball questions because I've got a lot to learn. — Ross Perot Jr.

You don't have to be the biggest to beat the biggest. — Ross Perot

If you see a snake, just kill it - don't appoint a committee on snakes. — Ross Perot

Generosity is something we learn, from our parents, schools and community. — Ross Perot

You're a trivial part in a trivia game.
Now what's your aim? A presidential campaign?
Like Ross Perot? He lost it though ...
But he got a billion in tha bank fo' sho'! — Aceyalone

In the 1992 presidential debate, third-party candidate Ross Perot famously warned about a 'giant sucking sound' of American jobs going south of the border to low-wage nations once trade protections were dropped.

Perot was right, but no one in our government listened to him.

Tariffs were ditched, and then Bill Clinton moved into the White House...He continued Reagan's trade policies and committed the United States to so-called free-trade agreements such as GATT, NAFTA, and the WTO, thus removing all the protections that had kept our domestic manufacturing industries safe from foreign corporate predators for two centuries. — Thom Hartmann

You mentioned Ross Perot. Mr. Perot jumped into the race at the last minute, had one issue that he ran on, the budget deficit, was in and out of the race a couple of times, and still got 20 million votes, didn't have the Internet. — Hamilton Jordan

There are a number of Americans who shouldn't vote. The number is 57 percent, to judge by the combined total of Clinton and Perot ballots in the 1996 presidential election. — P. J. O'Rourke

Ross Perot came and visited Apple several times and visited the Macintosh factory. Ross was a systems thinker. — John Sculley

Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You'd be amazed how many companies don't listen to their customers. — Ross Perot

The American dream. Those three short, simple words encompass the hopes and aspirations of all the peoples on earth. The words are not only short and simple. They are also fragile. — Ross Perot

The best way to make money is not to have money as your primary goal. I've seen great people come into the business world primarily motivated to make money. Almost without exception they failed. — Ross Perot

This planet is our home. If we destroy the planet, we've destroyed our home, so it is fundamentally important. — Ross Perot

The real estate business was something Dad and I could do together. — Ross Perot Jr.

In business, people are held accountable. In Washington, nobody is held accountable. In business, people are judged on results. In Washington, people are measured by their ability to get reelected. — Ross Perot

If we really want to know who is responsible for the mess we're in, all we have to do is look in the mirror. You and I own this country, and we are responsible for what happens to it. — Ross Perot

Guys, just remember, if you get lucky, if you make a lot of money, if you get out and buy a lot of stuff
it's gonna break. You got your biggest, fanciest mansion in the world. It has air conditioning. It's got a pool. Just think of all the pumps that are going to go out. Or go to a yacht basin any place in the world. Nobody is smiling, and I'll tell you why. Something broke that morning. The generator's out; the microwave oven doesn't work ... Things just don't mean happiness. — Ross Perot

A lot of people look at a basketball team as an anchor tenant for an arena. I look at an arena as the anchor tenant for a much larger program. — Ross Perot Jr.

You really need to be on top of what you own, and you've got to be on top of your record-keeping. Imagine one day if a major bank is taken down and the records are gone. — Ross Perot Jr.

The one thing I know through experience ... is that people don't know why they come to work until they don't have to come to work. — Ross Perot

A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy, and a weak economy leads to a weak nation. — Ross Perot

AllianceTexas is a cash machine for our public partners. — Ross Perot Jr.

The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her. — Ross Perot

The only hard-and-fast rules a Perot must operate under are getting a sound education; being honest and ethical in our business dealings; treating the people who work for us with respect and dignity; and, finally, a Perot cannot be afraid to take risks when appropriate. — Ross Perot Jr.

Dad endorsed my learning to fly so he would have a live-in pilot, one he could get in touch with at any time. — Ross Perot Jr.

Most new jobs won't come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We've got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality. — Ross Perot

What I like about land is I can drive out and check on it. It doesn't go anywhere. It's hard to steal land. — Ross Perot Jr.

Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to write what is worthy of being read. — Ross Perot

One voice is tiny, and alone it cannot be heard above the din of politics as usual. The peoples voice, when it cries as one, is a great roar. — Ross Perot

Today, the U.S. has lost one out of every four manufacturing jobs that existed before NAFTA - over 5 million, with 42,000 factories closed. A modest trade surplus with Mexico was replaced with a large, persistent deficit. . . . NAFTA's new investor protections dramatically increased the ability of corporations to outsource entire factories to Mexico" - resulting in the "giant sucking sound" presidential candidate Ross Perot warned us about. — Bill Press

[In Moscow] we got through to [Soviet leaders] Brezhnev and Kosygin on the telephone. I think it was because nobody had ever tried to call them at home before. — Ross Perot

I came from an environment where if you see a snake, you kill it. At General motors, if you see a snake, the first thing you do is to hire a consultant on snakes. — Ross Perot

Don't run your life by what's legal or illegal. Run your life based on what's right or wrong ... — Ross Perot

Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial. — Ross Perot

I never had a single conversation about politics with Ross Perot in my life; still haven't. — James Stockdale

We vote for Perot. We think he's a great, marvelous, honest man. We send money to his campaign, even though he is one of the richest capitalists in our culture. Imagine, sending money to Perot! It's unbelievable, yet it's part of that worship of individuality. — James Hillman

The activist is not the person who says the river is dirty. The activist is the person who cleans up the river — H. Ross Perot

If we decide to take this level of business creating ability nationwide, we'll all be plucking chickens for a living. — Ross Perot

It wasn't really part of the program in the Perot family. Rebellion was not an option. — Ross Perot Jr.

Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they're going to make mistakes. — Ross Perot

War has rules, mud wrestling has rules - politics has no rules. — Ross Perot

I put it in the back of my mind that someday I would fly around the world. — Ross Perot Jr.

Ralph Reed is deeply ambitious and always was so. There was a time when he ... in one of my interviews, he said he pondered running the Ross Perot campaign, and he wasn't sure he wanted to do the Christian Right thing; he was worried that it boxed him into a corner. — Nina Easton

But influential business leaders were eager proponents of numbers-driven merit pay for teachers. Ross Perot, for example, pushed Dallas to implement a plan to use test scores alone to evaluate teachers and distribute pay increases. So it was ironic that private industry had, by the 1980s, mostly turned away from efforts to pay white-collar workers according to strict productivity measures, finding that such formal evaluation programs were too expensive and time-consuming to create and implement. Research showed that companies with merit pay schemes did not perform better financially than did organizations without it, nor were their employees happier. Instead, management gurus recommended that workers be judged primarily by the holistic standards of individual supervisors. — Dana Goldstein

It takes five years to design a new car in this country. Heck, we won World War II in four years. — Ross Perot

Anybody can cut prices, but it takes brains to produce a better article. — Ross Perot

If Ross Perot runs, that's good for us. If he doesn't run, it's good for us. — Dan Quayle

There is no accountability in the public school system - except for coaches. You know what happens to a losing coach. You fire him. A losing teacher can go on losing for 30 years and then go to glory. — Ross Perot

ROSS PEROT was the best thing that happened in American politics since Richard Nixon acquired a taste for gin. In both cases, the political dialogue of the day was enriched by spontaneous gibberish that entertained the wrong people and made the right ones question their faith. — Hunter S. Thompson

Anything that is excellent or praiseworthy stands moment by moment on the cutting edge and must be constantly fought for. Well placed priorities always sit on the edge. — Ross Perot

I was born rich. Not in tangible things ... but rich in the parents I had. — Ross Perot

If someone as blessed as I am is not willing to clean out the barn, who will? — Ross Perot

Well, first of all, I was asked by Ross Perot on a telephone call in March of 1992 if, since he had committed on the Larry King Show to becoming a candidate for president, to get on all 50 ballots. — James Stockdale

So many people spend their lives chasing money and end up as the richest men in the cemetery. I don't want to be like that. — Ross Perot

If we can't have a great team and a winning team, then I will not be an N.B.A. owner very long. — Ross Perot Jr.

I got to see the American Dream unfold in my living room. — Ross Perot Jr.

If you can't stand a little sacrifice and you can't stand a trip across the desert with limited water, we're never going to straighten this country out. — Ross Perot

The campaigns of Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, and John McCain all outperformed expectations on their support from independent voters. They made no effort to shy away from ideology, but conveyed to voters that their policies were driven by principle, not party talking points. — John Sununu

The most successful people in the world aren't usually the brightest. They are the ones who persevere. — Ross Perot

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown. — Ross Perot

Success is like Halley's comet, you know. Every now and then it just comes around. — Ross Perot

Japan is our rival, not our enemy. Japan is a competitor ... Bashing a Toyota won't make a better car. — Ross Perot

In plain Texas talk, it's 'do the right thing' — Ross Perot

You have to understand, I can't do any jokes about Ross Perot, because the last thing I need right now is another credit check. — Pat Paulsen

Ross Perot. I could have had a ball with him. — Rich Little

My father will always be my hero. He pioneered two successful companies that paved the way for the technology services industry and has devoted much of his life to helping people in need and those who serve our nation in the armed forces. — Ross Perot Jr.

Big is not beautiful. Big is inefficient. — Ross Perot

You will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment. — H. Ross Perot

Keep in mind our Constitution predates the Industrial Revolution. Our founders did not know about electricity, the train, telephones, radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, nuclear weapons, satellites, or space exploration. There's a lot they didn't know about. It would be interesting to see what kind of document they'd draft today. Just keeping it frozen in time won't hack it. — Ross Perot

Every time there's a dip in the market, we buy. If you don't buy the land right, it ain't going to work. — Ross Perot Jr.

If we did not have such a thing as an airplane today, we would probably create something the size of N.A.S.A. to make one. — Ross Perot

We must return immigration to a logical, orderly process where people fill out their applications and wait for approval. We must make sure illegal immigrants stop storming our borders. We must establiesh the correct criteria, such as our need for certain job skills or education, for granting the right to immigrate into the United States. — Ross Perot

I love this country, I love the principles on which it's founded. — Ross Perot

When building a team, I always search first for people who love to win. If I can't find any of those, I look for people who hate to lose. — Ross Perot

Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships. — Ross Perot

Half of this business is politics. As real estate developers, it's our job to go in there and get beat up. — Ross Perot Jr.

For our teams that do great work, we have a tradition of giving Rolex watches. If you see all the key guys with their Rolexes, that's sort of our Medal of Honor if you do something big. — Ross Perot Jr.

Never ask anyone to do what you haven't done before and wouldn't do again. That's a pretty fundamental rule in leadership ... treat them like you treat yourself. Things you don't like, they don't like. — Ross Perot

would announce that NeXT was bringing the world a breakthrough. But the customers didn't follow and NeXT wasn't close to making a profit, which companies must do to thrive and grow. At a board meeting in spring 1991, company officials delivered more bad news about poor results. Investor Ross Perot interrupted the presentation with a blunt assessment: "So what you're telling me is the cockpit's on fire and the plane's in a tailspin. — Karen Blumenthal

I believe that voices like Ross Perot (search), Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader should be heard. They don't have to be president. Give 'em a chance. — Kinky Friedman

Which one of the three candidates would you want your daughter to marry? — Ross Perot

My role in life is that of the grain of sand to the oyster-it irritates the oyster and out comes a pearl. — Ross Perot

Life is never more fun than when you're the underdog competing against the giants. — Ross Perot

Revitalizing General Motors is like teaching an elephant to tap dance. You find the sensitive spot and start poking. — Ross Perot

I never really thought I'd have the opportunity to run this business. It's an industry I grew up in. I watched EDS being formed in our living room at night. — Ross Perot Jr.

Kat picked up a folder labeled Senior. "What are these? Bank records?" She did a double take, looking at Hale. "Did your dad really pay two million dollars to the campaign to elect Ross Perot?"
"I ... " Hale said, stumbling for words and thumbing through another file. "Wow. I guess my cousin Charlotte isn't really my cousin."
"Don't worry," Kat said. "It looks like there might be a kid in Queens who is. — Ally Carter

Inventories can be managed, but people must be led. — Ross Perot

Talk is cheap. Words are plentiful. Deeds are precious. — Ross Perot

The first EDSer to see a snake kills it. At GM, first thing you do is organize a committee on snakes. Then you bring in a consultant who knows a lot about snakes. Third thing you do is talk about it for a year. — Ross Perot

I used to collect computer punch cards from the data centers. — Ross Perot Jr.

Life is like a cobweb, not an organization chart. — Ross Perot

Eagles don't flock, you have to find them one at a time. — Ross Perot