Private Enterprise Quotes

• 

  Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Horse, Business

  The Economist, July 6, 2012.

  111 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

  Winston Churchill

  Philosophy, Ignorance, Democratic Socialism

  Speech at the Scottish Unionist Conference, Perth, Scotland, May 28, 1948.

  569 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Freedom, Independent

  Sir Winston Churchill (1965). “The Churchill Wit”

  94 Copy quote

  Show source

• Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

  Winston Churchill

  Being Strong, Veterans Day, Stay Strong

  Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.395, Da Capo Press

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.

  Winston Churchill

  Life, Inspiring, Graduation

  Speech at Harrow School, Harrow, England, 29 Oct. 1941

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

  Winston Churchill

  Being Strong, Encouraging, Courage

  Winston Churchill (2012). “Churchill: The Power of Words”, p.395, Da Capo Press

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• Anything that government can do, private enterprise can do for half the cost.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Cost, Half

  21 Copy quote

• The Great Depression in the United States, far from being a sign of the inherent instability of the private enterprise system, is a testament to how much harm can be done by mistakes on the part of a few men when they wield vast power over the monetary system of the country.

  Milton Friedman

  Country, Mistake, Men

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.50, University of Chicago Press

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• A newspaper is a private enterprise owing nothing whatsoever to the public, which grants it no franchise. It is therefore affected with no public interest.

  William Peter Hamilton

  Owing, Newspapers, Interest

  7 Copy quote

• Some [intentional communities], like the Shakers and the Harmony Society, have endured for a century or even longer. The Hutterians, to cite an extreme example, are today still strongly committed to communal living after practicing it, punctuated only by occasional lapses into private enterprise, for 450 years. The Hutterian rate of membership turnover has been only about 0.0006 per year.

  Benjamin Zablocki

  Years, Community, Membership

  5 Copy quote

• The sole function of Government is to bring about a condition of affairs favorable to the beneficial development of private enterprise.

  Herbert Hoover

  Government, Development, Affair

  Herbert Hoover, United States. President (1929-1933 : Hoover) (1934). “The state papers and other public writings of Herbert Hoover”

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity—and until they do (and find the cure), all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Real, Philosophical, Fall

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.279, Princeton University Press

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Small and mid-sized companies in this country historically have been responsible for creating the overwhelming majority of new jobs in the private sector. One of the most-common misconceptions about our private enterprise system is that large companies, such as the Fortune 500, are integral to the process of job creation in this country. The truth is quite the opposite.

  Michael Milken

  Country, Jobs, Opposites

  14 Copy quote

• Respecters of private property are really obligated to oppose much that is done today in the name of private enterprise, for corporate organization and monopoly are the very means whereby property is casting aside its privacy.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Mean, Names, Organization

  Richard M. Weaver (2013). “Ideas Have Consequences: Expanded Edition”, p.121, University of Chicago Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Now, I’m not saying that we don’t need rules in society. But the question of who makes the rules and on what basis becomes supremely important. Will the rule-making flow from the matrix of voluntary exchange based on the ethic of serving others through private enterprise? Or will the rules be made and enforced by people wearing guns and bulletproof vests with a license to shock or kill based on minor annoyances?

  Jeffrey Tucker

  Gun, Bulletproof Vest, People

  11 Copy quote

• Since the State necessarily lives by the compulsory confiscation of private capital, and since its expansion necessarily involves ever-greater incursions on private individuals and private enterprise, we must assert that the state is profoundly and inherently anti-capitalist .

  Murray Rothbard

  Expansion, Individual, States

  Murray Newton Rothbard (19??). “The Anatomy of the State”, p.42, Ludwig von Mises Institute

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Private enterprise manages better all that to which it is equal. Anarchism declares that private enterprise, whether individual or cooperative, is equal to all the undertakings of society.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Individual, Equal, Anarchism

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.23, SUNY Press

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's time to believe again in the potential of private enterprise set free from the shackles of over-bearing federal government.

  Rick Perry

  Believe, Government, Shackles

  Presidential Candidacy Announcement, delivered 13 August 2011, Charleston, South Carolina

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think eventually private enterprise will be able to send people into orbit, but I suspect initially it's going to have to be with NASA's help.

  Sally Ride

  Thinking, People, Orbit

  Interview with Jim Clash, www.askmen.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Private enterprise can never lead a space frontier. It's not possible because a space frontier is expensive, it has unknown risks and it has unquantified risks.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Space, Risk, Enterprise

  4 Copy quote

• When a private enterprise fails, it is closed down; when a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. Isn't that exactly what's been happening with drugs?

  Milton Friedman

  Weed, Marijuana, Government

  24 Copy quote

• In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.

  Tacitus

  Success, Ambition, Men

  Cornelius Tacitus (1873). “The History of Tacitus”, p.81, London : Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-unon-industry cartels or by centralized economic planning. It was produced by private enterprises in a profit-and-loss system. And losses were at least as important in weeding out failures, as profits in fostering successes. Let government succor failures, and we shall be headed for stagnation and decline.

  Milton Friedman

  Letting Go, Weed, Loss

  22 Copy quote

• Private enterprise creates; government destroys. That is the great economic lesson of our times and all times.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Government, Liberty, Lessons

  8 Copy quote

• The New Deals enmity for that system of free and competitive private enterprise which we call capitalism was fundamental.

  Garet Garrett

  Fundamentals, Enmity, Enterprise

  Garet Garrett (1944). “The Revolution was”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source