Charles Koch Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The only way you improve is to try new things.

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

But it [crony capitalism] erodes our overall standard of living and stifles entrepreneurs by rewarding the politically favored rather than those who provide what consumers want.

A classical liberal is someone who wants a society that maximizes peace, civility, tolerance, and well-being for everyone. One that opens opportunities for everyone to advance themselves.

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

I want my legacy to be greater freedom, greater prosperity and a better way of life for my family, our employees and all Americans. And I wish the same for every nation on earth.

I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.

To end cronyism we must end government's ability to dole out favors and rig the market.

Most power is power to coerce somebody. We don't have the power to coerce anybody.

We are on dangerous terrain when government picks winners and losers in the economy by subsidizing favored products and industries.

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.

The easy way to make money is to get special political privilege. From the beginning of time, business has cozied up to government and gotten restrictions on competition and subsidies and stuff.

When you start attacking cronyism and peoples political interests, it gets nasty.

That's the first rule for anybody who controls - do no harm.

Our vision controls the way we think and, therefore, the way we act the vision we have of our jobs determines what we do and the opportunities we see or don't see.

We try to evaluate how much value an employee is creating here and reward them accordingly.

They say your genetics are going to set your direction regardless of what happens, but I think there's more to it than that.

I always wanted to be different and do things differently. I was a pain in the neck. I was challenging everything you wanted me to do and challenging people in school.

Years later, when I asked my father, I said 'Pop, why were you so much harder on me than my younger brothers?' he said, son, you plum wore me out.

Far too many businesses have been all too eager to lobby for maintaining and increasing subsidies and mandates paid by taxpayers and consumers.

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

The government is largely influenced by people who advocate corporate welfare and advocate these policies that create this two-tiered society...

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

To make a quick buck, but over time, if you're not creating value for others, customers, society, isn't going to let you be around.

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

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

The role of business is to provide products and services that make peoples lives better - while using fewer resources - and to act lawfully and with integrity.

I studied what principles under-laid peace and prosperity and concluded the only way to achieve societal well-being was through a system of economic freedom.

I think our biggest problem in society is we're headed more and more toward a two-tiered society. That is, creating welfare for the wealthy and destroying opportunities for the disadvantaged.

Anytime students shout down a speaker who says something different, this is not good.

All of our policies are based on whether it will make - enable people to improve their lives or it will make their lives worse.

I feel a passion for what we're trying to do.I mean, why does somebody who's old who's a writer keep writing? Because that's who they are.

When currying favor with Washington is seen as a much easier way to make money, businesses inevitably begin to compete with rivals in securing government largess, rather than in winning customers.

If somebody is doing more and more to make other people's lives better, have them make all they can, if that's what drives them, because that's what we want.

If people don't learn to work by the time they're in their 30s, they're never very productive.

A market system is not a profit system, it's a profit-and-loss system.

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.

Scientific discoveries and innovation come from combining different existing technologies and different perspectives in a unique way.

I've had the philosophy that John Adams expressed, in the kind of system that we're trying to create in this country: that this is a system for moral people. It will work for no other.

Just Donald Trump's tenor and insulting of people is just beyond the pale.

I don't believe in a plumb line. I believe in the exchange of ideas.

You can't start taking away benefits if people don't have any opportunities.

What we need to work on is how to increase productivity. And then everybody will be better off.