Malcolm Forbes Quotes

The ultimate high: A man's abilities equaling his opinion of'em.

One who never asks either knows everything or nothing.

There is never enough time, unless you're serving it.

An inadequate chief executive officer's time at the top is always too long no matter how short.

To switch lads and lassies from quickie ceremonies back to the catered works in to-be-worm-only-once white dresses, the [wedding] garment producers have turned to sociology. Through statistics as carefully laid out as a bridal train, they are establishing a correlation showing a higher divorce rate for the informally gowned.... They may just have something there.... If a bride has sunk a bunk of savings into a dress she can't use again in a second wedding, she might think twice about having a second.

Enlightening editorial writers is even more difficult than educating educators.

When the joy of the job's gone, when it's no fun trying anymore, quit before you're fired.

I was loaded with sheer ability, spelled i-n-h-e-r-i-t-a-n-c-e.

I think legislative assaults on motorcyclists are totally emotionally, disproportionate and totally unfair....they're instigated and implemented by people who know nothing about motorcycling, but have a prejudice. It's easy to curb the freedoms of others when you see no immediate impact on your own.

Accepting blame when it's not really due sometimes makes the point better.

A lot of money doesn't make anyone more often right. It just makes him harder to correct.

Old age is not for sissies.

To live long and achieve happiness, cultivate the art of radiating happiness.

A winner must first know what losing's like.

It's never too late to learn.

If you say what you think don't expect to hear only what you like.

The more sympathy you give, the less you need.

Making mistakes is human ... repeating 'em is too.

Once you've given advice to someone, you're obligated.

The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.

The hardest work of all - doing nothing.

Anyone who says businessmen deal in facts, not fiction, has never read old five-year projections.

When what we are is what we want to be, that's happiness.

It's never a good deal when only one party thinks it is.

Since you have to do the things you have to do, be wise enough to do some of the things you want to do.

One cannot walk into an April day in a negative way. With spring, each man's plans and hopes result in new efforts, fresh actions. All of which has a mighty important bearing on the economy. There are those of us who think that the psychology of man, each and together, has more impact on markets, business, services and building and all the fabric of an economy than all the more measurable statistical indices.

It's great to arrive, but the trip's most always most of the fun.

For corporations to be bedfellows with the arts is good business for both. The architecture that houses a company is a more visible statement than the president's in the annual report. Ditto interiors, particularly of offices and sometimes, dramatically, in plants. For solvent businesses, support of community cultural undertakings in music, drama, dance creates great goodwill. Also, the existence of such activities is often important to the executives and their families that companies want to keep or attract to keep.

All too often we say of a man doing a good job that he is indispensable. A flattering canard, as so many disillusioned and retired and fired have discovered when the world seems to keep on turning without them. In business, a man can come nearest to indispensability by being dispensable in his current job. How can a man move up to new responsibilities if he is the only one able to handle his present tasks? It matters not how small or large the job you now have, if you have trained no one to do it as well, you're not available; you've made your promotion difficult if not impossible.

Since we had nothing to do with our arrival and usually are not consulted about our departure, what makes so many of us think we're entitled to so much while we're here?

It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing Sing Prison or Harvard. We hire a man, not his history.

I don't think anybody can be a success who doesn't like what they do. [But it's] no job if it has no challenge; there's nothing to it if there are no problems. The essential thing is liking what you're doing.

People who matter are most aware that everyone else does too.

People who never get carried away should be.

How to succeed? Try hard enough.

When those with ability at their job get to thinking they can't be done without, they're already on their way out.

The ultimate in futility is owning important jewelry. Insurers often insist on the wearing of paste replicas because necks with real rocks around 'em risk wringing.

It is never too late to learn.

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.

What's an expert? I read somewhere, that the more a man knows, the more he knows, he doesn't know. So I suppose one definition of an expert would be someone who doesn't admit out loud that he knows enough about a subject to know he doesn't really know how much.

One of the ceaseless wonders of the world: The power of a smile.

Presence is more than just being there.

Isn't it fortunate how selective our recollections usually are.

One's real worth is never a quantifiable thing.

A big cigar in a young face requires the best of both.

In all the thrashing about that results from our dwindling gold reserves, it's about time that this country and other countries get some perspective on the situation. The day this country is out of the stuff, that day gold becomes what it's worth as a metal and no longer will have much significance as a monetary measurement. It isn't the gold we have that makes this nation rich. It's what we make, our knowhow, our productivity. So long as this country produces more and better, the world will continue to want what we make.

Age isn't important until you run out of it.

Success follows doing what you want to do. There is no other way to be successful.