Ken Langone Quotes

“A million dollars in the presidential election is a spit in the ocean. It's not a lot of money.”

“America has thrived on capitalism, and America will thrive again on capitalism.”

“America is a powerful country. America is a great country. We have enormous resiliency. Any time we have had our back to the wall, we have come out a winner.”

“Buy a stock at two, have it go to 30. You feel like you're on top of the world.”

“Contrary to what you might assume, I didn't start with any advantages and neither did most of the successful people I know.

I am the grandson of immigrants who came to this country seeking basic economic and personal liberty.”

“Home Depot has never hired one human being for minimum wage, not one. We have always paid a premium over minimum wage.”

“I don't really know and I don't care what I'm worth.”

“I have, never, ever once, ever gotten anything from any politician I've ever helped. Not one thing.”

“I learned playing poker that you never count your winnings because that's when you start to lose.”

“I think I should pay more taxes... but everything they take from me should go to reduce the debt.”

“I worked hard to get where I am. And I started with nothing.”

“I'm a stockholder. I own a lot of stocks.”

“I'm nuts, I'm rich, and boy, do I love a fight!”

“If we can get everybody working or as many as we can, you would be amazed at how many of our problems will disintegrate, go away.”

“People making $1 million a year are not going to do anything different if they pay more taxes.”

“Rich people in one country don't act the same as rich people in another country.”

“Ronald Reagan would never go into the Oval Office without his jacket on – that's how much he revered the presidency.”

“The biggest single challenge to America and our future is income inequality. We've got to fix it.”

“The economy is a collection of emotions.”

“The essence of business to me is great people run great companies. Mediocre people don't do a very good job.”

“The three most powerful things in business: a kind word, a thoughtful gesture, and passion and enthusiasm for everything you’re doing.”

“The two most powerful things in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.”

“You can have a phenomenal technology with bad people; you're not gonna have much success.

You can have mediocre technology with great people; they'll figure out a way to make a buck.”

“You can't run your career on the basis of what someone else does.”

“You only have to worry about going to jail if you break the law. That's pretty simple.”

“You want to close the income inequality gap in part? Give us better educated kids out of high school.

Give us kids that can challenge and succeed in the challenge with technology. You give us those kinds of kids, and watch the needle move.”

“Capitalism is brutal. It’s survival of the fittest.

What’s a successful business? More money coming in than going out. If it’s the other way around, you’re out of business — simple as that.

If Bernie and Arthur and I had had a bad idea when we started Home Depot, we’d have gone broke. If we’d had a good idea but executed it poorly, we’d also have gone broke.

Look at all the automobile companies that have folded: Packard, Studebaker, Hudson; I can go right down the list. What happened? Mostly good ideas poorly executed. They couldn’t compete.”

“Income inequality is a terrible problem in this country, and I don’t have a magic solution. I don’t know about mandating a higher minimum wage. I do know that nobody can live on $20,000 a year.

But I worry that mandating a higher minimum might hurt the people you want to try to help: the more you increase the costs of any factor of production, the more incentive you give owners to figure out a way to change that factor of production.

So, for instance, a kid behind the counter at Wendy’s may only be able to perform at that level. If you raised the cost of that function, Wendy’s management might have to think about automating it, and then the kid’s out of a job.”

“It wasn’t just wealth itself that put me in that position; a lot of it was sheer stubborn curiosity.

Whenever I served on a corporate board, I was notorious for asking more questions than any other director on that board. I didn’t give a sh*t if my question showed how stupid I was.

A lot of people are scared to ask questions because they don’t want people to know how dumb they are. I’ve never had that problem.”

“One of the most important lessons in my life is this: leave more on the table for the other guy than he thinks he should get. And one of the most important rules in capitalism is incentive.”