An important priority for me is a business must get their own house in order. Be or become an agent of positive change in your own enterprise and adopt responsible practices to eliminate the risks that often lie at the root of inequality and poverty.

No nation was ever ruined by trade.

I think that once you fully understand the climate and ecological emergencies, then you know what you can do as well. And, of course, there’s a lot of things you can do in your everyday life, but we cannot be focusing on these individual things you can do. We have to see the full picture.

There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.

Football is big business – you can’t get away from it. But you have to separate that side from the playing.

Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.

Most poor people live in the poorest countries.

Investing for the poor requires participation from the entire community.

As is the case with most people in this game, I am driven by financial motives and creative motives; the question I had to answer is which motive I will give priority to?

I’ve actually made a prediction that within 30 years a majority of new cars made in the United States will be electric. And I don’t mean hybrid, I mean fully electric.

Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.

We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases.

To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.

Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.

The poor are discussed as this homogeneous mash, like porridge. The idea that they might be individuals, and be where they are for very different, diverse reasons, again seems to escape some people.

If you’re low-income in the United States, you have a higher chance of going to jail than you do of getting a four-year degree. And that doesn’t seem entirely fair.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

The Web and new technology offer more opportunities to reach a world market at a lower price. Today, a person can start a business at home and reach the world market.

The main thing that’s missing in energy is an incentive to create things that are zero-CO2-emitting and that have the right scale and reliability characteristics.

I was poor white trash, no glitter, no glamour, but I’m not ashamed of anything.

We will naturally pursue our goals on the strength of our own resources, skills and enterprise. But, we know that we will be more successful when we do this in partnership with the world.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow.

You can close more business in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.

There’s no doubt that inequality destabilizes societies. I think the social science evidence on that front is crystal clear.

Every successful businessman will have experienced set-backs and failures – they’re lying if they say they haven’t. Virgin has had some tremendously successful businesses and some that have not quite worked out. Virgin Cola springs to mind – the product wasn’t distinct enough from Coca-Cola.

In business or in life, don’t follow the wagon tracks too closely.

I’ve never gone into business to make money. Every Virgin product and service has been made into a reality to make a positive difference in people’s lives. And by focusing on the happiness of our customers, we have been able to build a successful group of companies.

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

Leadership is influence.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

In this business, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.

I’m in this business to be creative – I’ll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

We should all grow our own food and do our own waste processing, we really should.

It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.

The problem is that the U.S. government is the biggest debtor in the world, and those depending on it to take care of them will only become poorer.

Many people, especially in the U.S., see countries like Sweden or Norway or Finland as role models – we have such a clean energy sector, and so on. That may be true, but we are not role models.

If there’s one thing that’s certain in business, it’s uncertainty.

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

The first mistake in public business is the going into it.

Netscape was able to get the government working on its behalf.

Competitions are a business, first and foremost.

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

Treatment without prevention is simply unsustainable.

Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.

The main message we want to get out there is that climate change is caused by the rotten economic system.

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.

Living on $6 a day means you have a refrigerator, a TV, a cell phone, your children can go to school. That’s not possible on $1 a day.

Advertising is a racket, like the movies and the brokerage business. You cannot be honest without admitting that its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus zero.

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.

I have a company, and I’ve got to think about that. I’m trying to do my best there, and that’s a much harder task. We recycle as much as possible, and we conserve. But I’ve always been one to save everything – I even walk up stairs on the very inside or the very outside to not wear out the tread.

All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.

I come from a poor family, I have seen poverty. The poor need respect, and it begins with cleanliness.

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

In energy, you have to plan and do research way in advance, sometimes decades in advance to get a new system that’s safer, doesn’t require us to go around the world to get all our oil.

Eventually, all companies are replaced.

I think that every artist – or anybody that’s in business – could benefit from a direct-to-consumer strategy, so I think that that applies to us as artists and content creators, too.