Charles Koch Quotes

Embrace change. Envision what could be, challenge the status quo, and drive creative destruction.

The only way you improve is to try new things.

Success is one of the worst enemies of success, because success tends to breed complacency and lack of humility.

I've always believed in the saying that "there is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit."

If you never failed, then you're probably not doing very much.

If you have methods without principles, you're going to have trouble. But if you develop methods based on principles, then you can make progress.

We must measure what leads to results, not simply what is easy to measure.

To be happy you have to fulfill your nature. That's what Aristotle taught so many centuries ago, that the road to happiness isn't to go drink more or consume more. The road to happiness is to fully develop your abilities, and then apply them to do good.

Successful companies create value by providing products or services their customers value more highly than available alternatives. They do this while consuming fewer resources, leaving more resources available to satisfy other needs in society. Value creation involves making people's lives better. It is contributing to prosperity in society.

To do meaningful work is to contribute - to create value in society.

My father would always say "learn everything you can and whenever you can, because you never know when it'll come in handy."

A truly free society is based on a vision of respect for people and what they value.

When everyone gets something for nothing, soon no one will have anything, because no one will be producing anything.

How do we make people's lives better unless we find the truth of what works and what doesn't?

I like to think that I try to learn something every day - and change my views, modify my views as I learn.

I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington.

If what you preach and what you do are inconsistent, your children will spot hypocrisy faster than anybody and do the opposite.

I don't have all the answers. I have a lot of questions. And I have some basic principles.

Innovation comes from recombining existing technology and different perspectives in innovative ways.

My father told me "If you choose to let this money destroy your initiative and independence, then it will be a curse to you and my action in giving it to you will have been a mistake. I shall regret very much to have you miss the glorious feeling of accomplishment. Remember that often adversity is a blessing in disguise and is certainly the greatest character builder."

Best part of my job is fulfillment. When I see that, that we're creating value, that we're helping improve people's lives, and we benefit from it, so it's a system of mutual benefit. Our philosophy's working. That's what turns me on. That's what keeps me going.

I try to hire people who will challenge and have the humility to be challenged - people who have basically good values.

Do you want to have your feelings hurt a little bit because you have some negative feedback, or do you want to continue down the disastrous track you're on and have a huge disaster? Talk about a bruised ego. It may ruin your career.

Let's say I am a chocoholic and I eat tons of chocolate a day. A hundred thousands of tons a day. I have this craving, but I can't afford it, so I get a printing press, and I start printing money, and I print billions and billions to buy chocolate. So I create this boom in the chocolate industry, so stores are running out of chocolate. So they have demand, so chocolate makers expand. Cocoa growers expand. You create this great boom. But now the feds arrest me and shut me down. And now there is a depression in the chocolate industry. That's what happens with the monetary policy.

If there is wrong, you don't say we have to get rid of it gradually. If injustice exists, you need to eliminate it immediately.