Lee R. Raymond Quotes

We have seen that in this country in the last few years, particularly on Wall Street, with the rise of the old human frailty of greed. This occurs when people begin to serve only their own needs to the detriment of everyone else.

There is hardly an activity that a person can think about that does not intrinsically involve energy, most of which is currently provided by fossil fuels.

I have a great deal of difficulty with those who live in a hugely prosperous country telling people in the developing world that they should be deprived of a critical source of energy.

A free economy is as essential to society as democratic political institutions. A strong market-based economy is the fertile ground for democratic freedoms that we think are important.

We should seek a system that provides outlets for those skills and talents so that everyone can find a way to work and serve in a manner that best suits the strengths of each individual.

There is no system that is inherently moral if the participants themselves are not.

It makes no sense to talk of the social obligations of the corporation without reference to its economic obligations. The two are intertwined.

He or she must be successful in economic terms, but always within an ethical framework. Whether his or her constituency is a corporation and its shareholders or the customers in a small and privately held business, his or her first responsibility is to serve that constituency.

In every aspect of life, including the economic dimension, we are always challenged to do the right thing. In many cases in the market system, which allows a great deal of latitude for human choice, people can get carried away to excess.

Ethical conduct is something that becomes inherent in an organization over a long period of time.

The main professional responsibility of a person in business is business.

The competitive instinct is what I think drives organizations and people to become better and better. It can promote change toward progress and development, which is good for everybody. It can be the motivating force behind improvement in our social well-being that is far beyond anything we might have imagined on our own.

The freedoms that people have that flow from all civic institutions fundamentally come from the success of a market system.

It is important to remember that all business has an impact on the lives of real people.

I find it interesting that many of the people who want to restrict fossil fuels live in well-developed countries where abundant and affordable energy is readily available.

Without competition, the spectacular development of technology that we have seen in the last one hundred years in this country would not have happened.

Competition can be viewed in two ways. It can be viewed in a negative light and be seen as destructive, but one can also have the view that it is competition that drives people and institutions to higher and higher levels of excellence and, therefore, to more and more opportunity.