Eli Broad Quotes

In high school, I would drive my teachers batty. They would make a statement, and I would say, 'Why is that?' They didn't want to be questioned.

Without a doubt, stem cell research will lead to the dramatic improvement in the human condition and will benefit millions of people.

Any city in America would like to get a museum built if they didn't have to pay for it.

While I am proud of a number of accomplishments, there are real costs to being unreasonable. Long hours. Too little time with family. A near incapacity for, as they say, stopping and smelling the roses.

I don't think the market can keep going up. In the U.S., we see real estate not going up.. houses are selling at lower prices. You can't have anything going up 10 percent to 20 percent to 30 percent indefinitely.

I don't want to be in the film business. I'm not even sure it's a business.

Collecting is more than just buying objects.

Artists rarely do the same thing over and over again. Art is about the new, doing things in a new way.

I'm strong-willed. Architects are strong-willed. You get the best results with a strong client and a strong architect working together.

Ideas, more than money, are really the currency for success.

Museums do not share their collections with other museums unless they get something in exchange. The Metropolitan will deal with the Louvre, but will they send their stuff to Memphis? No.

If someone can't give me a good reason why you can't do something, I find a way to do it.

I learned to embrace risk, as long as it was well thought out and, in a worst-case scenario, I'd still land on my feet.

The first dream I had was just to get a college education. I got through college in three years, taking extra classes in summer school.

Art evokes emotion. It doesn't have to be a thing of beauty.

Charity is just writing checks and not being engaged. Philanthropy, to me, is being engaged, not only with your resources but getting people and yourself really involved and doing things that haven't been done before.

Unfortunately, the boards of art institutions tend to be populated with well-meaning supporters of the arts who often lack any business background or appetite for imposing appropriate discipline.

People always say congratulations. When you're a successful bidder it means you're willing to spend more money than anyone else. I'm not sure if that's congratulations or condolences.

If you have poor management that's not doing the right job, you end up with unions filling the void and... page after page of work rules and thicker and thicker contracts.

I have always believed that every great city in history needs a vibrant center.

Who you spend your life with-much more so than how you choose to spend it-is the most important decision you can make. Do it right. That's the best advice I can give you.

One, Andrew Carnegie said, ‘He who dies with wealth dies in shame.’ And someone once said, ‘He who gives while he lives also knows where it goes.’

My wife was the first art collector in the family, and I didn't become interested until around 1973. The first important artwork we bought was a Van Gogh drawing of two peasant houses in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

I'd be bored to death if I spent all my time with other businesspeople, bankers and lawyers.

Civilizations are not remembered by their business people, their bankers or lawyers. They're remembered by the arts.

I believe that a newspaper is a great civic asset and that ownership is best in the hands of foundations or wealthy families that want to own it for reasons other than maximizing profits. I also believe newspapers should remain in local hands.

School district policies and practices have not kept pace with student and teacher needs.

You can have great teachers, but if you don't have a good principal, you won't have a good school.

A real collector does not sell.

Frankly, I'm not sure how far I would get if I attended public school today. It's not just that public schools aren't producing the results we want - it's that we're not giving them what they need to help students achieve at high levels. K-12 education in the United States is deeply antiquated.

Research – and using what you learn from it to analyze every situation – is what separates being unreasonable from being irrational.

I never stay anywhere — parties , museums, meetings — longer than 3 hours.

Contemporary art challenges us.. it broadens our horizons. It asks us to think beyond the limits of conventional wisdom.

There were periods when the art market got overheated, but there is no reason it should appreciate dramatically.

You always learn lessons in business.

The best move you can make in negotiation is to think of an incentive the other person hasn't even thought of - and then meet it.

Anything I do, I spend a lot of time. I do it with passion and intensity. I want to be in charge.

School boards are, for the most part ,made up of political wannabes who see a board seat as a stepping stone for political office, or well-meaning parents who represent an ethnic group or geography, or have some other narrow interests. Few people on them understand what governance is about.

No one ever made a million bucks by being cautious or timid or reasonable.

I don't think it makes any sense for an individual to invest in common stocks unless they know the company, work at the company, and so on.

To me, money is a means to do good. I reached a point in my life where I had enjoyed tremendous business success that afforded my family everything we could possibly want. My wife and I then decided that we could use our wealth to make a difference. So we created the Broad Foundations to do four things: to improve urban public education, to support innovative scientific and medical research, to foster art appreciation for audiences worldwide and to support civic initiatives in Los Angeles.

A lot of executives act like their time is worth more than anyone else's. But I always respect an employee who guards his or her time, even from me.

I can't think of another enterprise other than being a homeowner that can't have its debt restructured in bankruptcy. Corporations can but a homeowner can't? Now with securitization the homeowner can't go to the owner of the loan and work things out.

I can imagine no more important contribution to our country's future than a long-term commitment to improving urban K-12 public schools.

The biggest barrier we've seen to student progress is this: School policies and practices often prevent good teachers from doing great work and even dissuade some talented Americans from entering the profession. This needs to change.

How absurd that our students tuck their cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPads, and iPods into their backpacks when they enter a classroom and pull out a tattered textbook.

There is no substitute for knowledge. To this day, I read three newspapers a day. It is impossible to read a paper without being exposed to ideas. And ideas - more than money - are the real currency for success.

I don't see myself as a great discoverer of artists, like Charles Saatchi.