Ross Perot Quotations

Eagles don't flock, you have to find them one at a time.

If you can't stand a little sacrifice and you can't stand a trip across the desert with limited water, we're never going to straighten this country out.

A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy, and a weak economy leads to a weak nation.

Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to write what is worthy of being read.

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.

Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.

Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You'd be amazed how many companies don't listen to their customers.

If you see a snake, just kill it - don't appoint a committee on snakes.

The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river.

Anybody can cut prices, but it takes brains to produce a better article.

There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to write what is worthy of being read.

Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial.

Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they're going to make mistakes.

The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, the public debt should be reduced and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled.

War has rules, mud wrestling has rules - politics has no rules.

In plain Texas talk, it's 'do the right thing'

If someone as blessed as I am is not willing to clean out the barn, who will?

Life is like a cobweb, not an organization chart.

Most new jobs won't come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We've got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

If we did not have such a thing as an airplane today, we would probably create something the size of N.A.S.A. to make one.

You don't have to be the biggest to beat the biggest.

Inventories can be managed, but people must be led.

Which one of the three candidates would you want your daughter to marry?

Should that person be allowed to lie publicly? Let's promise ourselves we're never going to have a candidate like that,

Should a person who's the most powerful person in the world conduct his personal life in such a way that would be a poor example to our children?

We've been very lucky today, ... We've had a tremendous run-up in the stock ... (but) we're in it for the long haul.

I think it's plain that the president should resign and spare the country the agony of impeachment and removal proceedings,

You'll see it. Sooner or later the American people will wake up. All they have heard is, 'Let's forgive, let's forgive. The Bible tells us to forgive.' It's the silliest stuff I have ever heard on television. That's why I have finally spoken out.

We have two horses in the race, one of them is going to win,

Trevor's got 2,000 people trapped in a hospital in downtown New Orleans, ... We need to figure out how to help them and get those people out.

The other parties have a fortune to spend. They have almost $100 million under federal election laws. We get only $29 million.

And the truck convoy will get longer and longer, and as it approaches Washington it's going to be a big one. Again, we will have a dignified turning-in ceremony and a candlelight vigil in Washington to get the message over that we expect a whole lot more from our president than this man has given us, and that for the sake of our children and for the sake of our country and for the sake of the world, please resign now.

Once you pay the bills, money is the most overrated thing in the world

As long as I am helpful to the organization, I am certainly happy to help and participate in any constructive way, ... The last thing I want is all of the things I see in the paper day in and day out about catfights and this and that and the other that have noting to do with fact but make great fiction.

That war damaged over 100,000 people -- they're damaged from chemical weapons, ... This administration for the last eight years has let those men rot.

This man will let this country rot, he will let the economy go into an international decline, he will devastate millions of people, and, if necessary, he'll start a little war just to get a bump in the polls,

This man is a dedicated husband, he is dedicated to his wife, he is dedicated to his daughters, ... I think he can be the father that can be a good role model for the people in this country.

ask him to make his medical records public.

As (White House aide) Chuck Colson has said several times, 'The man bears watching.'

I've had a number of friends in my life who've had drinking problems. Frankly, the ones that put the cork in the bottle and quit and have the guts to do it, I respect,

In this country, if you're eccentric and a billionaire you either kill a wrestler or run for president.

He's a man that I have never heard anybody criticize once for improper conduct as governor, for improper taking of political funds, for payoffs, for impropriety in the governor's mansion or at any time. And that is a big state. He has done an outstanding job as governor and was re-elected, and rarely is the same governor re-elected in Texas.

If I had been in charge of this operation you can bet your bottom dollar that the President, at this very moment, would be shaking hands with freed prisoners. We wouldn't have hit just one camp, we would have hit several.

Revitalizing General Motors is like teaching an elephant to tap dance. You find the sensitive spot and start poking.

We have to succeed, so we will.

Generosity is something we learn, from our parents, schools and community.

There is no accountability in the public school system - except for coaches. You know what happens to a losing coach. You fire him. A losing teacher can go on losing for 30 years and then go to glory.

The first EDSer to see a snake kills it. At GM, first thing you do is organize a committee on snakes. Then you bring in a consultant who knows a lot about snakes. Third thing you do is talk about it for a year.

[In Moscow] we got through to [Soviet leaders] Brezhnev and Kosygin on the telephone. I think it was because nobody had ever tried to call them at home before.

Business is a cobweb of human relationships

Success is like Halley's comet, you know. Every now and then it just comes around.

I was born rich. Not in tangible things... but rich in the parents I had.

If we decide to take this level of business creating ability nationwide, we'll all be plucking chickens for a living.

The American dream. Those three short, simple words encompass the hopes and aspirations of all the peoples on earth. The words are not only short and simple. They are also fragile.

Japan is our rival, not our enemy. Japan is a competitor... Bashing a Toyota won't make a better car.

The one thing I know through experience ... is that people don't know why they come to work until they don't have to come to work.

I love this country, I love the principles on which it's founded.

Big is not beautiful. Big is inefficient.

Written reports stifle creativity.

Keep in mind our Constitution predates the Industrial Revolution. Our founders did not know about electricity, the train, telephones, radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, nuclear weapons, satellites, or space exploration. There's a lot they didn't know about. It would be interesting to see what kind of document they'd draft today. Just keeping it frozen in time won't hack it.

Anything that is excellent or praiseworthy stands moment by moment on the cutting edge and must be constantly fought for. Well placed priorities always sit on the edge.

Modern politics has become little more than shirking responsibility and blaming somebody else.

Don't run your life by what's legal or illegal. Run your life based on what's right or wrong....

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success.

It is the individual's ability to deal with the unexpected that characterizes the difference between success and failure.

I came from an environment where if you see a snake, you kill it. At General motors, if you see a snake, the first thing you do is to hire a consultant on snakes.

This planet is our home. If we destroy the planet, we've destroyed our home, so it is fundamentally important.

Life is never more fun than when you're the underdog competing against the giants.

The most successful people in the world aren't usually the brightest. They are the ones who persevere.

Guys, just remember, if you get lucky, if you make a lot of money, if you get out and buy a lot of stuff--it's gonna break. You got your biggest, fanciest mansion in the world. It has air conditioning. It's got a pool. Just think of all the pumps that are going to go out. Or go to a yacht basin any place in the world. Nobody is smiling, and I'll tell you why. Something broke that morning. The generator's out; the microwave oven doesn't work . . . Things just don't mean happiness.

Never ask anyone to do what you haven't done before and wouldn't do again. That's a pretty fundamental rule in leadership... treat them like you treat yourself. Things you don't like, they don't like.

I honestly believe I'd make one of the worst elected officials in the history of this country.

It takes five years to design a new car in this country. Heck, we won World War II in four years.

The best way to make money is not to have money as your primary goal. I've seen great people come into the business world primarily motivated to make money. Almost without exception they failed.

Talk is cheap. Words are plentiful. Deeds are precious.

My role in life is that of the grain of sand to the oyster-it irritates the oyster and out comes a pearl.

So many people spend their lives chasing money and end up as the richest men in the cemetery. I don't want to be like that.

Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility and commitment.

The debt is like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her.

In business, people are held accountable. In Washington, nobody is held accountable. In business, people are judged on results. In Washington, people are measured by their ability to get reelected.

When building a team, I always search first for people who love to win. If I can't find any of those, I look for people who hate to lose.

If we really want to know who is responsible for the mess we're in, all we have to do is look in the mirror. You and I own this country, and we are responsible for what happens to it.

We must return immigration to a logical, orderly process where people fill out their applications and wait for approval. We must make sure illegal immigrants stop storming our borders. We must establiesh the correct criteria, such as our need for certain job skills or education, for granting the right to immigrate into the United States.

One voice is tiny, and alone it cannot be heard above the din of politics as usual. The peoples voice, when it cries as one, is a great roar.