David Green Quotes

The money that we make from the company goes into The Body Shop Foundation, which isn't one of those awful tax shelters like some in America. It just functions to take the money and give it away.

With TOMS, I found a way to create sustainable giving and consistently help those who are in need.

People who have money have an obligation. I wouldn't say I'm entitled to tell them what to do with it but to use it wisely.

Where we're living we have a certain amount of our profit every year it's like a percentage 5 or 7% or something like that that we set aside specifically for charity things.

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.

I would never want to take TOMS or myself into an issues debate. That's not what we're about. We're about helping people.

As I see it, most major philanthropists have been bullied into giving. They feel social pressure to give. It has become a cost of doing business.

It's hard to be a good philanthropist in China.

Whether it is a super PAC or not, I have been blessed with wealth, and I think I have responsibility to use it properly.

My father, one of the great entrepreneurs and philanthropists of this state, taught me that capital - monetary or political - is to be used to benefit others. I intend to continue that tradition.

It's always the big question in our lives if you have a lot of success. What do you do with it? Buy more houses, buy more cars, buy more stuff, be wealthy and distant and unengaged? Or do you take all that good fortune that has come towards you and spread the love, do something with it?

For all the billions of dollars created here, Silicon Valley is remarkably stingy when it comes to giving.

As a company, we don't contribute to any cause except noncontroversial things like a breast cancer walk. I don't know anybody who is 'for' breast cancer.

If you have more money than you need, you have to give it away. It's a duty. I get to choose whom to sponsor, and I like to give to the areas that I know something about.

Money can add very much to one's ability to lead a constructive life, not only pleasant for oneself, but, hopefully, beneficial to others. My grandfather, along with Carnegie, was a pioneer in philanthropy, which my father then practiced on a very large scale. The Christian ethic played an essential part in my upbringing.

There is a place and a time for philanthropy, and there is only so much money you can give away.

Profitability is a shallow goal if it doesn't have a real purpose, and the purpose has to be share the profits with others.

This was the invention of modern American philanthropy as we know it. The idea of systematizing giving to achieve human progress was the true innovation of John D. Rockefeller, and ultimately the Rockefeller Foundation's legacy.

I feel that India lacks a level of philanthropy that is proportional to the wealth that is here, particularly among the top 5,000 industrialists and entrepreneurs.

We have so many rich people in Switzerland. They should take more responsibility for the general public. There is almost no tradition of philanthropy here anymore, unlike in the U.S.

It is no accident that our business, The University of Phoenix, is one of the top 50 community-minded companies in America. My father and I are strong believers in the concept of community.

For us, giving back is not an extracurricular activity.

Young entrepreneurs, in general, feel they're too busy running their companies, which I think is a mistake. But once they're older, you see much more of a propensity to be involved in philanthropy.

If you compare charitable donations, you name it, religious tithing, giving, Americans trump citizens of the world hands down.

I am privileged to be the heir to huge wealth, and I regard myself as a custodian of that money for the benefit of people who need it more than I do.