David Korten Quotes

The businessman is only tolerable so long as his gains can be held to bear some relation to what, roughly and in some sense, his activities have contributed to society.

In a world where profit is consistently put before both people and the planet, climate economics has everything to do with ethics and morality.

You have to understand: the narrative that people have about business and capitalism is that they are fundamentally selfish, greedy, and exploitative. Of course, I don't agree with that narrative.

We're still expecting capitalism to solve problems: 'Maybe if we sell enough oil, we can give some profits to an environmental agency!' Capitalism isn't a moral system.

There is no blindness more insidious, more fatal that this race for profit.

America, as everybody knows, is a country of many contradictions, and a big contradiction for a long time has been between a very aggressive form of capitalism and consumerism against what might be called a kind of moral or civic impulse.

Speeches by businessmen on social responsibility...may gain them kudos in the short run. But it helps to strengthen the already too prevalent view that the pursuit of profits is wicked.... There is one and only one social responsibility of business-to...engage in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

Business is the most powerful force in society. It has the highest potential for solving social problems. Once consumers saw examples of prosperous companies integrating social concerns into their business practices, they were emboldened to demand the same of other businesses. Businesses could no longer say it was impossible.

I’ll stop demonizing business when business stops putting their profits before the country and starts putting their workers before their greed.

Leaders must be reminded that Businesses exist for the service of men.

I think the discussion of, you know, can we put a cap on wealth creation and distribution - it's something that should be at the heart of every Christian that is a capitalist. Is, what is the purpose I'm doing with this wealth?

Regulatory reform must move beyond limiting the damage that the financial sector can do and ensure that the sector genuinely serves society.

Where human lives are concerned, time is always short, yet the world has witnessed the vast resources that governments can draw upon to rescue financial institutions deemed 'too big to fail.'

Markets need morals.

Individuals want to know that none of their own money is being invested in companies that put their profits ahead of international security.

For millennials, conducting business with a purpose that goes beyond making profits is critically important in determining the kind of company they want to work for - and the kind of company with whom they are willing to do business.

Lawmakers must stand up for companies that choose public safety over profit margins.

As business leaders, we should not choose between profit or good; rather, we must choose to profit from good. And that requires connecting what we do with a purpose beyond profit - a reason to exist that meets our shared sense of 'doing good.'

I don't think 'Profit' is devoid of morality. He's just on a different plane than the rest of us.

So many tech companies have embraced a mission that they say is larger than profits. Once you wrap yourself up in a moral flag, you have to carry it to the top of other hills.

I started a software company with a couple other folks. It went public. We made plenty of money. And I thought it was this incredible mission, but in fact, we sold software to Haliburton; we sold software to Frito-Lay and Pepsi and all these companies that didn't necessarily do good things.

Without getting into brothels, there are ethical capitalists the problem is that there aren't enough of them. It is not "just a few bad apples" that have been evident in our corporations, our investment bankers and our mutual funds, but so many that one has to concede that the barrel itself needs some work.

This present system by which industry is motivated exclusively by the quest for maximal profits - though it may have helped a great deal to develop, to industrialize our country so rapidly and so successfully - now it's clearly passed its usefulness. It is keeping us from achieving the ideal society that we should have. We say industry must produce to improve the quality of life for all our people.

If you're in a system where you must make profit in order to survive. You are compelled to ignore negative externalities, effects on others.

There will be no good business unless the majority comes to agree that we should demand more from business than large quarterly returns.