“Excellence is almost a tactile feeling – and it starts with a vision… sometimes a vision that shows you a path that's so good that it cannot not succeed.”
— Stephen A. Schwarzman
Co-Founder and CEO of Blackstone, Major Philanthropist

The quote archive

Business

A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.

Because Peter Paul Rubens signed his name to his paintings (several of which were finished by his artisans), they commanded a higher price. Today, the famous contemporary glass artist, Dale Chihuly puts his name on every work of glass although he never makes any of it.

— Philip Kotler

Father of Modern Marketing & Prolific Management Author

A foreign power using financial resources to create hedge-funds or other anonymous players who would gain leverage and trust and be viewed as just another hedge-fund with a funny name based out in the Cayman islands. People would be unaware of their true attentions and then on a certain day, they could act in co-ordination and flood the market with sell-orders.

— James Rickards

Currency expert & author on financial threats to national security

We will not employ capital unless we can find an opportunity that has a minimum of 50% upside to our intrinsic value over the term of our investment.

— Lauren Templeton

Value investor and niece of legendary investor John Templeton

Managing a hedge fund as a value-investor is a dream come true!

— Lauren Templeton

Value investor and niece of legendary investor John Templeton

The point of maximum pessimism is the ultimate time to buy a stock because at this point, all the sellers are gone… and only buyers remain. How do you determine this point? Even Uncle John said it's impossible…. You never know until it has passed!

— Lauren Templeton

Value investor and niece of legendary investor John Templeton

Uncle John always had a desk-plate in his office that said 'trouble is opportunity' and that's very much how we see the markets.

— Lauren Templeton

Value investor and niece of legendary investor John Templeton

We tend to see two scenarios that come up time and time again. The first and most common scenario is that security prices become inefficient or show large departures from intrinsic value when there are few investors paying attention to the company. So in this case, we are talking about a neglected stock.

— Lauren Templeton

Value investor and niece of legendary investor John Templeton

I'm very old-fashioned in the sense that I still feel you need a strong manufacturing sector in your economy. I was saying that in the late 1970's and early 80's and people just laughed at me. I think my day is about to turn.

— Prof. Mark Hart

It's clear to me that small businesses, particularly micro-enterprises, have been responsible for the majority of the gross job creation in the last five years… particularly through the recession.

— Prof. Mark Hart

For every example I could give you of regulations causing problems, I could give you two of regulations creating opportunities. I think this notion that regulation is causing problems is a real red herring.

— Prof. Mark Hart

The world of business is scared without realising that it, itself, is the cure.

— Author

Instead of looking at hoarded cash as being a 'rainy day fund' we need to view these balances as stores of economic growth. This cash represents potential investments, new jobs, new innovations and the potential for significant wealth creation and diffusion.

— Author

Bill Gates of Microsoft is on-record as saying, 'Microsoft would not function as a company in the way that it does without operations in Israel.'

— Michael Freedman

Mathematician & Topologist, Solved the 4-Dimensional Poincaré Conjecture

As far as I'm concerned any business that's up and running within an hour of having mortar [attacks shows remarkable resilience].

— Michael Freedman

Mathematician & Topologist, Solved the 4-Dimensional Poincaré Conjecture

What's remarkable about Israel's economy is that in the last few years we have situations which, in any other country, would have been totally disruptive. The incredible thing is that none of these threats have a measurable impact on our economy!

— Michael Freedman

Mathematician & Topologist, Solved the 4-Dimensional Poincaré Conjecture