Why should we stunt our ambitions and impoverish our lives in order to be insulted and looked down upon in our old age?

All we can thus far say about the duration of the units of [the business cycle] and each of [its] two phases is that it will depend on the nature of the particular innovations that carry a cycle,... and the financial conditions and habits prevailing in the business community in each case.

Profit is the payment you get when you take advantage of change.

The essential point to grasp is that in dealing with capitalism we are dealing with an evolutionary process

Innovation is the market introduction of a technical or organisational novelty, not just its invention.

We always plan too much and always think too little. We resent a call to thinking and hate unfamiliar argument that does not tally with what we already believe or would like to believe.

Situations emerge in the process of creative destruction in which many firms may have to perish that nevertheless would be able to live on vigorously and usefully if they could weather a particular storm.