#profit

Profit is so very fluctuating that the person who carries on a particular trade cannot always tell you himself what is the average of his annual profit. It is affected not only by every variation of price in the commodities which he deals in, but by the good or bad fortune both of his rivals and of his customers, and by a thousand other accidents to which goods when carried either by sea or by land, or even when stored in a warehouse, are liable. It varies, therefore, not only from year to year, but from day to day, and almost from hour to hour. To ascertain what is the average profit of all the different trades carried on in a great kingdom must be much more difficult; and to judge of what it may have been formerly, or in remote periods of time, with any degree of precision, must be altogether impossible. But though it may be impossible to determine, with any degree of precision, what are or were the average profits of stock, either in the present or in ancient times, some notion may be formed of them from the interest of money. It may be laid down as a maxim, that wherever a great deal can be made by the use of money, a great deal will commonly be given for the use of it; and that wherever little can be made by it, less will commonly be given for it. According, therefore, as the usual market rate of interest varies in any country, we may be assured that the ordinary profits of stock must vary with it, must sink as it sinks, and rise as it rises. The progress of interest, therefore, may lead us to form some notion of the progress of profit. ↗

— Adam Smith

#money

Just as Jimmy Stewart and Tyrone Power get 50 percent of the profits, so do I. ↗

— Alan Ladd

#i #jimmy #jimmy stewart #just #percent

I believe that the profits will come from the quality of your creative products. Since the beginning, I've always wanted to develop a self-feeding circle of creative productions: the positive financial returns from one show would be used to develop and create a new show, and so on. ↗

— Guy Laliberte

#beginning #believe #circle #come #create

He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so. ↗

— Walter Lippmann

#dangerous #himself #holds #honor #ideal

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe. Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end. ↗

— H. L. Mencken

#associations #end #even #exactly #feel

Be true to yourself, and, um, don't worry about some large companies' quarterly profit index. ↗

— Natalie Merchant

#be true #companies #index #large #profit

Don't be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value. ↗

— Arthur Miller

#into #make #profit #seduced #thinking

If we were to do the Second Coming of Christ in color for a full hour, there would be a considerable number of stations which would decline to carry it on the grounds that a Western or a quiz show would be more profitable. ↗

— Edward R. Murrow

#christ #color #coming #considerable #considerable number

We didn't become the most prosperous country in the world just by rewarding greed and recklessness. We didn't come this far by letting the special interests run wild. We didn't do it just by gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street. We built this country by making things, by producing goods we could sell. ↗

— Barack Obama

#built #chasing #come #could #country

What is a danger is that we stay stuck in a new normal where unemployment rates stay high, people who have jobs see their incomes go up, businesses make big profits. But they're learned to do more with less, and so they don't hire. ↗

— Barack Obama

#businesses #danger #go #high #hire