Companies

"The director is really a watch-dog, and the watch-dog has no right without the knowledge of his master to take a sop from a possible wolf."

"In their desire to check dishonest and reckless trading Courts must be careful not to put tighter fetters on companies than the Legislature has authorised."

"I do not wish in any way to depart from the principle that a wrongdoing director, whether he be morally or legally wrong, should be made liable for the highest amount which could have been obtained from the property wrongly taken by him while it was in his hands."

"I don't think that corporations are these big bogeymen that a lot of people paint them to be. … A corporation is a group of people, and if you want to come together for profit or nonprofit, that's your business—whatever you want to do."

"It appears to me that the atmosphere of the temple of Justice is polluted by the presence of such things as these companies."

"A company is perfectly responsible in every sense."

"Good companies will meet needs; great companies will create markets."

"In matters where a company is not restrained by Parliament they have a right to make reasonable regulations; but it will always be a question whether their regulations are reasonable or not."

"The office of director … a man ought not to fill without qualification."

"It is a very lamentable state of things, but I see no help for it. The money in such cases is gone—gone by mismanagement always, often by fraud and jobbery, and by the time that such questions come before the Courts it is a mere suggestion upon whom the loss shall fall. It is rarely borne by the persons whose ignorance, mismanagement, or dishonesty has caused the loss, as they are almost always without means, and have generally speculated as badly for themselves as for those who have put them in office. I see no help for it but in that which appears to be a plant of slow growth, caution on the part of persons liable to be affected by the ruin of these societies."

"Even people within systems don't often recognize what whole-system goal they are serving. "To make profits", most corporations would say, but that's just a rule, a necessary condition to stay in the game. What is the point of the game? To grow, to increase market share, to bring the world (customers, suppliers, regulators) more and more under the control of the corporation, so that its operations becomes ever more shielded from uncertainty."

"Over the long term, the companies of America behave more like biology than anything else. In biology, all the individuals die, and so do all the species — it's just a question of time. And that's pretty well what happens in the economy, too."