Quotes
“All I can say is Mike Lee is an embarrassment to the state of Utah. He's been a tremendous embarrassment to our family, to our state, to our country to have him as a U.S. senator.”
“All men and women need a roof over their heads and need to be fed and have proper health care. I don't know that I believed that, or even understood that, in the early days.”
“Always make your team around you feel like you are succeeding, even though you know, way down deep, it's a long shot. You have to be the fighter and the leader and the one who instills energy and hope in others.”
“As a senior in high school with no money working several jobs, I was sent to a wonderful school on the East Coast by a wonderful Jewish man. I've never forgotten that. I've sent over 5,000 young people to school around the world in memory of him because he was so gracious to me.”
“As a young man, I was a navy officer in Vietnam. I made USD320 a month and would always give away USD50 a month to a family I felt that was in greater need than me, in addition to my tithing to my church. I've just always felt in my heart, coming from a very humble background, that there are plenty of people who need a break in life.”
“Being raised in Idaho, you think everyone is poor. Then you see the wider world.”
“Everyone has always underestimated a company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The New York boys thought they could take me on, that nobody out here has any knowledge or wisdom.”
“I found that, academically, it really didn't matter whether I had received a certain grade in a class; it didn't matter too much what schools I wanted to attend... What matters is one's drive, one's intelligence.”
“I have always given money away. I haven't always been wealthy - the opposite, in fact. But I have always felt that I wanted people to share it with me.”
“I love to give money away. I don't know if it makes my children and grandchildren all that happy.”
“I never have used computers or calculators. I've always been able to figure out in my head, far before my opposition has, in negotiating for acquisitions, where we need to be and where the numbers are and how we could get the best sight of the bargain, without having to resort to accountants or assistants or financial experts.”
“I think corporations and people are very different. People make corporations whatever it is that they're going to be.”
“I would say to you, have faith in yourself - believe in what you are doing, and, most important, be a person of integrity. It is totally up to you, and no one else, how your life evolves.”
“If people are going to give, they're going to give. And it doesn't matter if you give a dollar or five dollars or a hundred dollars or a million dollars; it's all according to your ability.”
“If someone said, 'Jon, we need USD250 million a year from now and we can make a dramatic breakthrough for ovarian cancer,' I'd have USD250 million in two months. You just work day and night if the cause in your heart is justified.”
“In America today, unfortunately, the right wing has been totally commandeered by the Tea Party, and it's a bad thing for our party.”
“I've always thought that people who left a great deal of money in their will never enjoyed the great honor and privilege and heart-rendering feeling of giving to others during their lifetime, because they were too selfish to give to others while they were alive, so they made sure they were dead and couldn't use it anymore.”
“Never quit believing that you can develop in life. Never give up. Don't deny the inward spirit that provides the drive to accomplish great things in life.”
“People who put money in the church basket and people who go to church and pay the pastor: that isn't real philanthropy; that's just like you belong to a country club. You pay your dues to belong to that church, so you pay your tithing or whatever it is.”
“Sometimes in life, we try to do our very best to help others, and in the process, it brings some anguish to us. But we can't ever let that stop us. We can't ever be stopped from helping others and allowing them to have some sense of happiness and joy in their life.”
“The time to give away money is when you make it.”
“True entrepreneurs have to really forego almost everything; they have to put it all on the line.”
“We should never have any political or religious organization filter our news.”
“We're in business to relieve human suffering, to help feed the poor, to provide education and culture - but above all else, we're concerned with the relief of human suffering.”
“Why should someone who has USD5 billion only give away USD2.5 billion? They can't take it with them.”
“You're in the game of life to fight. If you're in business, and you're not aggressively building, you shouldn't be in.”