referencebooks (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} referencebooks) wrote,@ 2005-12-14 12:26:00 |
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| Entry tags: | business, literature |
The Big Book of Business Quotations
The Big Book of Business Quotations
Copyright Bloomsbury Publishing, 2003. No other author/editor credit is given.
Published by Basic Books, 2003.
This is a 7" by 9" paperback book running to 454 pages including a rich keyword and author index, plus a list of categories and a brief note to readers.
As a collection of quotations, this is a rather interesting one. It's longer and more diverse than average, drawing on the words of not just business executives but also politicians, social critics and other notable figures. The quotations are offered as a "source of thoughts and advice for presentations, reports, and speeches" in the day to day life of business people (and business students, of course). They seem to be chosen well to illustrate arguments that a business person might be trying to make, about his company, his plan, his services, etc. Accordingly, the 150 subjects covered include Economics, Efficiency, Employees, Employers, Enthusiasm, Entrepreneurs, Excellence, and Executives, but not Ethics. (It doesn't include Morality, either, but to be fair, it does include Conscience, Honesty, Corporate Responsibility, and Corruption and Scandal.)
There are over 5,000 quotations in the book, from over 1,500 authors. A strength of the book is that the quotations are well cited, giving the name and birthdate of the author, a statement indicating something about who they were or are, and the title and publication date of the source.
Here are three randomly selected quotations from the book.
From the section on "Publicity:"
Silence is the virtue of fools.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher and statesman. De Dignitiate et Augmentis Scientiarium
From the section on "Money:"
I've always had a place for every dollar that came in. I've never seen the day where I could say that I felt rich. Generally you have to worry about paying the bills.
J. Paul Getty (1892-1976) U.S. entrepreneur, oil industry executive, and financier. Interview, Evening Standard [London] (February 11, 1974)
From the section on "Criticism:"
A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965) U.S. statesman and author. Speech (October 1952)
