Ross Perot Quotes

The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.

Life is never more fun than when you're the underdog competing against the giants.

When building a team, I always search first for people who love to win. If I can't find any of those, I look for people who hate to lose.

If we really want to know who is responsible for the mess we're in, all we have to do is look in the mirror. You and I own this country, and we are responsible for what happens to it.

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success.

In business, people are held accountable. In Washington, nobody is held accountable. In business, people are judged on results. In Washington, people are measured by their ability to get reelected.

The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her.

So many people spend their lives chasing money and end up as the richest men in the cemetery. I don't want to be like that.

War has rules, mud wrestling has rules - politics has no rules.

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.

I came from an environment where if you see a snake, you kill it. At General motors, if you see a snake, the first thing you do is to hire a consultant on snakes.

Talk is cheap. Words are plentiful. Deeds are precious.

Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.

The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, the public debt should be reduced and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled.

The most successful people in the world aren't usually the brightest. They are the ones who persevere.

Most new jobs won't come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We've got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

The best way to make money is not to have money as your primary goal. I've seen great people come into the business world primarily motivated to make money. Almost without exception they failed.

If you see a snake, just kill it - don't appoint a committee on snakes.

I honestly believe I'd make one of the worst elected officials in the history of this country.

Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.

This planet is our home. If we destroy the planet, we've destroyed our home, so it is fundamentally important.

Don't run your life by what's legal or illegal. Run your life based on what's right or wrong.

One voice is tiny, and alone it cannot be heard above the din of politics as usual. The peoples voice, when it cries as one, is a great roar.

Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they're going to make mistakes.

I was born rich. Not in tangible things... but rich in the parents I had.

It takes five years to design a new car in this country. Heck, we won World War II in four years.

Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial.

If we did not have such a thing as an airplane today, we would probably create an agency the size of NASA to build one.

My role in life is that of the grain of sand to the oyster-it irritates the oyster and out comes a pearl.

It is the individual's ability to deal with the unexpected that characterizes the difference between success and failure.

Modern politics has become little more than shirking responsibility and blaming somebody else.

Life is like a cobweb, not an organization chart.

The American dream. Those three short, simple words encompass the hopes and aspirations of all the peoples on earth. The words are not only short and simple. They are also fragile.

I love this country, I love the principles on which it's founded.

Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You'd be amazed how many companies don't listen to their customers.

A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy, and a weak economy leads to a weak nation.

Anything that is excellent or praiseworthy stands moment by moment on the cutting edge and must be constantly fought for. Well placed priorities always sit on the edge.

Japan is our rival, not our enemy. Japan is a competitor... Bashing a Toyota won't make a better car.

If someone as blessed as I am is not willing to clean out the barn, who will?

Anybody can cut prices, but it takes brains to produce a better article.

In plain Texas talk, it's 'do the right thing'

If you can't stand a little sacrifice and you can't stand a trip across the desert with limited water, we're never going to straighten this country out.

Revitalizing General Motors is like teaching an elephant to tap dance. You find the sensitive spot and start poking.

The one thing I know through experience ... is that people don't know why they come to work until they don't have to come to work.

Which one of the three candidates would you want your daughter to marry?

Big is not beautiful. Big is inefficient.

Written reports stifle creativity.

We have to succeed, so we will.

You don't have to be the biggest to beat the biggest.

If we decide to take this level of business creating ability nationwide, we'll all be plucking chickens for a living.