15 Quotes by J. Irwin Miller

I would be a poorer person if the only things I knew were what I had found out for myself.

Nothing is more expensive than mediocrity.

In the search for character and commitment, we must rid ourselves of our inherited, even cherished biases and prejudices. Character, ability and intelligence are not concentrated in one sex over the other, nor in persons with certain accents or in certain races or in persons holding degrees from some universities over others. When we indulge ourselves in such irrational prejudices, we damage ourselves most of all and ultimately assure ourselves of failure in competition with those more open and less biased.

Business chief executive officers and their boards succumb to the pressures of the financial markets and their fears of takeovers and pour out their energies to produce quarterly earnings – at the expense of building their companies for the long term.

In our home we have a rule: You can disagree with a man’s position as much as you want – after you have been able to state it to his satisfaction.

We are afraid to face the hard questions. We are willing to tackle drugs, crime, and public education only if it doesn’t cost us any new taxes.