“Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.”
Calvin Coolidge, 30th American president

“If a for-profit entity is only profit seeking, then you’re not going to be a long-term profitable company. That’s kind of a paradox of business, I think.”
– Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

“The Great Recession has prompted a painful reckoning. As a pause in the materialistic party that has lasted since the beginning of the industrial age, the downturn has helped us see that the bash hasn’t been all that satisfying and can’t continue if we want our species to survive. We’re setting the bar higher for ourselves and the companies in our lives.”
– Laurie Bassi; Ed Frauenheim, Lawrence Costello, and Larry Costello, Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era

“Trying harder to make money often leads to making less money. To put it another way, the most profit-driven companies are usually not the most profitable, whereas most companies that are highly profitable are not principally focused on profit making.”
– Rajendra Sisodia, Jagdish Sheth, and David Wolfe, Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose

“Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself for many of the visionary companies. Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.
– James C. Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

“We’re learning that the profit motive, potent though it is, can be an insufficient impetus for both individuals and organizations. An equally powerful source of energy, one we’ve often neglected or dismissed as unrealistic, is what we might call the ‘purpose motive.’”
– Daniel Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

“Profit and profitability are crucial – for society even more than for the individual business. Yet profitability is not the purpose of, but a limiting factor on business enterprise and business activity. Profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity.”
– Peter Drucker, The Essential Drucker

“Unlike any of their competitors, Apple has successfully challenged conventional thinking within the computer industry, the small electronics industry, the music industry, the mobile phone industry and the broader entertainment industry. And the reason is simple. Apple inspires. Apple starts with Why.”
– Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

“Except for the financially desperate, people do not work for money alone. What also fuels their passion for work is a larger sense of purpose or passion. Given the opportunity, people gravitate to what gives them meaning, to what engages to the fullest their commitment, talent, energy, and skill. And that can mean changing jobs to get a better fit with what matter to us.”
– Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence