Malcolm Forbes Quotes
Born: August 19, 1919
Malcolm Forbes, the flamboyant publishing magnate and billionaire adventurer, was a man who lived his own advice. As the mastermind behind *Forbes* magazine, he didn’t just report on success—he embodied the audacity required to chase it. His philosophy was a potent cocktail of calculated risk and relentless optimism, famously championing the idea that failure is merely a stepping stone. Forbes believed that true wealth wasn’t measured in currency, but in the courage to take action. His quotes resonate because they strip away pretense, offering a no-nonsense blueprint for turning ambition into reality. He remains a timeless voice for anyone ready to stop dreaming and start doing.
Malcolm Forbes Quotes (39)
"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
— Malcolm Forbes"When you cease to dream you cease to live."
— Malcolm Forbes"Diversity: the art of thinking independently together."
— Malcolm Forbes"The best vision is insight."
— Malcolm Forbes"Failure is success if we learn from it."
— Malcolm Forbes"By the time we've made it, we've had it."
— Malcolm Forbes"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are."
— Malcolm Forbes"The more sympathy you give, the less you need."
— Malcolm Forbes"Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs."
— Malcolm Forbes"To measure the man, measure his heart."
— Malcolm Forbes"Everybody has to be somebody to somebody to be anybody."
— Malcolm Forbes"Success follows doing what you want to do. There is no other way to be successful."
— Malcolm Forbes"Presence is more than just being there."
— Malcolm Forbes"If you have a job without any aggravations, you don't have a job."
— Malcolm Forbes"It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing Sing Prison or Harvard. We hire a man, not his history."
— Malcolm Forbes"Men who never get carried away should be."
— Malcolm Forbes"When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always get worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better."
— Malcolm Forbes"Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always makes you less than you are."
— Malcolm Forbes"People who never get carried away should be."
— Malcolm Forbes"Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely like exercising authority usually lose it."
— Malcolm Forbes"When what we are is what we want to be, that's happiness."
— Malcolm Forbes"The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy."
— Malcolm Forbes"People who matter are most aware that everyone else does too."
— Malcolm Forbes"It's more fun to arrive a conclusion than to justify it."
— Malcolm Forbes"If you expect nothing, you're apt to be surprised. You'll get it."
— Malcolm Forbes"Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he's hired to do."
— Malcolm Forbes"If you don't know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues initials on them and pass them along. When in doubt, route."
— Malcolm Forbes"What's an expert? I read somewhere, that the more a man knows, the more he knows, he doesn't know. So I suppose one definition of an expert would be someone who doesn't admit out loud that he knows enough about a subject to know he doesn't really know how much."
— Malcolm Forbes"Pay your people the least possible and you'll get from them the same."
— Malcolm Forbes"Let your children go if you want to keep them."
— Malcolm Forbes