“To gain profit is important, but you must invest to build up assets that you can cash in in the future.”

People need money, but they also want to be happy in their work and proud of it.

I believe one of the reasons we went through such a remarkable growth period was that we had this atmosphere of free discussion.

An enemy of innovation could be your own sales force.

All you need is the best product in the world, the most efficient production in the world and global marketing.

But make sure you don’t make the same mistake twice.

Of course we have to make a profit, but we have to make a profit over the long haul, not just the short term, and that means we must keep investing in research and development.

More people are interested in trying to shuffle paper assets around than building lasting assets by producing real goods.

There are three creativities: creativity in technology, in product planning, and in marketing.

My solution to the problem of unleashing creativity is always to set up a target.

My chief job is to constantly stir or rekindle the curiosity of people that gets driven out by bureaucracy and formal schooling systems.

In the United States businessmen often do not trust their colleagues.

I consider it my job to nurture the creativity of the people I work with because at Sony we know that a terrific idea is more likely to happen in an open, free and trusting atmosphere than when everything is calculated.

My concept is that anybody has creative ability, but very few people know how to use it.

Management of an industrial company must be giving targets to the engineers constantly; that may be the most important job management has in dealing with its engineers.

But if you work with people, sometimes logic often has to take a backseat to understanding.

And then we grow up and learn to blend our innate abilities with the rules or principles we have learned.

All churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit.

To me, P and L doesn’t only mean profit and loss – it also means people and love.

You do not require an invitation to make profits.

The rate of profit is naturally low in rich and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin.

It is unjust that the whole of society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.

When profit diminishes, merchants are very apt to complain that trade decays; though the diminution of profit is the natural effect of its prosperity, or of a greater stock being employed in it than before.

For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?

Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest?