Notable quotes about accounting: Difference between revisions

| text = “DoubleDouble-entry bookkeeping… is one of the finest inventions of the human mind, and every prudent master of a house should introduce it into his economy.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Second Luca Pacioli Lecture |url=https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2007/html/sp071114.en.html |website=European Central Bank |publisher=European Central Bank |date=2007 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (through a character in *Wilhelm Meister’s Theatrical Calling*) {{Johann Wolfgang von Goethe/attribution}}

| text = “AccountingAccounting is the preparation and generation of information and the aggregation of that information in a way that’s useful in decision-making.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Learning to Use Financial Accounting Numbers Strategically |url=https://globalyouth.wharton.upenn.edu/articles/business/learning-to-use-financial-accounting-numbers-strategically/ |website=Wharton Global Youth Program |publisher=Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania |date=2014 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Catherine Schrand, Wharton accounting professor {{Catherine Schrand/attribution}}

| text = “IfIf you’re interested in business, I definitely think you ought to learn all the accounting you can by the time you’re in your early 20s. Accounting is the language of business.”<ref>{{cite web |title=1998 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Transcript |url=https://www.cnbc.com/1998/05/04/berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting-1998.html |website=CNBC Buffett Archive |publisher=CNBC |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Warren Buffett, investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}

| author = Eric Ries, Author {{Eric Ries/attribution}}

| author = Elvis Presley, American singer and actor {{Elvis Presley/attribution}}

| text = “WeWe think a lot about how to communicate financial information to our investors and lenders… We should think more about how we communicate it to our employees so that they understand it.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Employees Care About Organization Finances—but Do They Understand Them? |url=https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/employees-care-about-organization-finances-do-they-understand-them |website=Stanford Graduate School of Business |publisher=Stanford University |date=2020 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Ed deHaan, accounting professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business {{Ed deHaan/attribution}}

| text = “ToTo be good at your business, you have to know the numbers—cold.”<ref>{{cite book |author=Donald E. Kieso; Jerry J. Weygandt; Paul D. Kimmel |title=Financial Accounting |publisher=Wiley |edition=6th |date=2005 |pages=Preface}}</ref>

| author = Harold Geneen, former chairman of ITT Corporation {{Harold Geneen/attribution}}

| text = “It’sIt’s wild that we are not teaching all of our middle schoolers and high schoolers how to manage household finance, understanding things like credit and interest and risk… You need to go in recognizing the house always wins on average… We must learn to speak the language of business.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Financial Literacy Starts Young |url=https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/financial-literacy-starts-young |website=Stanford Graduate School of Business |publisher=Stanford University |date=2021 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Ed deHaan, accounting professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business {{Ed deHaan/attribution}}

| text = “ObviouslyObviously, you have to know accounting. It’s the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization… double-entry bookkeeping was a hell of an invention… although accounting is the starting place, it’s only a crude approximation.”<ref>{{cite web |title=A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom |url=https://ritholtz.com/2014/09/charles-mungers-speech-at-usc-business-school-1994/ |website=The Big Picture |publisher=Ritholtz Wealth Management |date=1994 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}

| text = “TheThe books cannot be closed unless the debits equal the credits; when the debit and credit have been separately summed, the two sums shall be equal.”<ref>{{cite book |author=Luca Pacioli |title=Paciolo on Accounting |translator=W. W. Cooper and Yuji Ijiri |publisher=Richard D. Irwin |date=1963 |pages=175}}</ref>

| author = Luca Pacioli, Renaissance mathematician and “father of accounting” {{Luca Pacioli/attribution}}

| author = Robert Kiyosaki, author of ''Rich Dad Poor Dad'' {{Robert Kiyosaki/attribution}}

| text = “TellTell me how you will measure me, and I will tell you how I behave. If you measure me in an illogical way… do not complain about illogical behavior.”<ref>{{cite book |author=Eliyahu M. Goldratt |title=The Haystack Syndrome: Sifting Information Out of the Data Ocean |publisher=North River Press |date=1990 |pages=Chapter 8}}</ref>

| author = Eliyahu Goldratt, management theorist and author of the Theory of Constraints {{Eliyahu Goldratt/attribution}}

| author = Bethany McLean, American journalist {{Bethany McLean/attribution}}

| text = “ManagersManagers and investors must recognize that accounting numbers are the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 1982 Annual Shareholder Letter |url=https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1982.html |website=BerkshireHathaway.com |publisher=Berkshire Hathaway |date=1983 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Warren Buffett, investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}

| author = Peter Krueger {{Peter Krueger/attribution}}

| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}

| text = “CarlCarl Braun did not know how to read a profit-and-loss statement or a balance sheet to save his life. He would say, ‘Our standard accounting method is asinine. We’re building oil refineries, for God’s sake. Accounting costs for all our corrosion costs as if they were an ordinary cost like office supplies. That’s crazy. We must integrate corrosion costs right into the balance sheet.’”’<ref>{{cite web |title=A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom |url=https://ritholtz.com/2014/09/charles-mungers-speech-at-usc-business-school-1994/ |website=The Big Picture |publisher=Ritholtz Wealth Management |date=1994 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}

| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}

| text = “AccountingAccounting does not make corporate earnings or balance sheets more volatile. Accounting just increases the transparency of volatility in earnings.”<ref>{{cite news |title=The End of Mark-to-Market Accounting? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2008/09/the-end-of-mark-to-market-accounting/8790/ |work=The Atlantic |author=Megan McArdle |date=2008-09-30 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Diane Garnick, investment strategist at Invesco {{Diane Garnick/attribution}}

| text = “ProperProper accounting is like engineering. You need a margin of safety. Thank God we don’t design bridges and airplanes the way we do accounting.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Chatting With Charlie: The Mark Twain of Finance |url=https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-lawyer/articles/chatting-with-charlie-the-mark-twain-of-finance/ |website=Stanford Lawyer |publisher=Stanford Law School |date=2003 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}

| author = Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve {{Alan Greenspan/attribution}}

| author = Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States {{Barack Obama/attribution}}

| author = Gail Godwin {{Gail Godwin/attribution}}

| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}

| text = “WeWe must not let pressures to satisfy Wall Street expectations or unrealistic demands to deliver a certain quarterly earnings result lead us to compromise the quality of our accounting and financial reporting. We must adhere to the highest quality standards.”<ref>{{cite web |title=A Partnership for the Public Trust |url=https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/1998/1998-89 |website=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |publisher=SEC |date=1998-09-28 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Arthur Levitt, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission {{Arthur Levitt/attribution}}

| text = In the long run, management stressing accounting appearance over economic substance usually achieves little of either.<ref>{{cite web |title=68Chairman's InspirationalLetter Quotes on- Accounting1981 |url=https://graciousquoteswww.berkshirehathaway.com/accountingletters/1981.html |publisher=Berkshire Hathaway Inc. |date=1982-02-26 |access-date=2025-12-2631}}</ref>

| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}

| text = “WhenWhen any cunning man keeps two books, one with honest entries and the other with false, he hides the truth, and you cannot rely on it; therefore be careful to keep your books with truth and integrity.”<ref>{{cite book |author=Luca Pacioli |title=Paciolo on Accounting |translator=W. W. Cooper and Yuji Ijiri |publisher=Richard D. Irwin |date=1963 |pages=12}}</ref>

| author = Luca Pacioli, Renaissance mathematician and “father of accounting” {{Luca Pacioli/attribution}}

| text = “WhenWhen accounting practices are defined more by gimmickry than by their representation of underlying business conditions, public trust is jeopardized.”<ref>{{cite web |title=A Partnership for the Public Trust |url=https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/1998/1998-89 |website=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |publisher=SEC |date=1998-09-28 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Arthur Levitt, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission {{Arthur Levitt/attribution}}

| text = “CreativeCreative accounting is an absolute curse to a civilization. One could argue that double-entry bookkeeping was one of history’s great advances. Using accounting for fraud and folly is a disgrace. In a democracy, it often takes a scandal to trigger reform. Enron was the most obvious example of a business culture gone wrong in a long, long time.”<ref>{{cite webbook |last=Munger |first=Charles T. |title=68Poor InspirationalCharlie's QuotesAlmanack: onThe AccountingWit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger |urlpublisher=https://graciousquotesDonning Company Pub.com/accounting/ |access-date=2025-12-262008}}</ref>

| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}

| author = Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist {{Charles Lyell/attribution}}

| text = “WeWe must guard the integrity of the process. In doing so we will strengthen investor confidence, achieve a higher quality of financial reporting and serve the best interests of our Nation.”<ref>{{cite web |title=A Partnership for the Public Trust |url=https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/1998/1998-89 |website=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |publisher=SEC |date=1998-09-28 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Arthur Levitt, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission {{Arthur Levitt/attribution}}

| text = “II think Enron is the first shoe to drop. There’s a kind of Gresham’s law, where bad conduct drives out good conduct.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Chatting With Charlie: The Mark Twain of Finance |url=https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-lawyer/articles/chatting-with-charlie-the-mark-twain-of-finance/ |website=Stanford Lawyer |publisher=Stanford Law School |date=2003 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}

| text = “InIn insurance, as elsewhere, the reaction of weak managements to weak operations is often weak accounting.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 1982 Annual Shareholder Letter |url=https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1982.html |website=BerkshireHathaway.com |publisher=Berkshire Hathaway |date=1983 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Warren Buffett, investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}

| text = “NoNo CEO examining books today understands what the hell is going on… Accounting has steadily degraded over the past 30 years, and accounting firms have sold out time after time.”<ref>{{cite web |title=Chatting With Charlie: The Mark Twain of Finance |url=https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-lawyer/articles/chatting-with-charlie-the-mark-twain-of-finance/ |website=Stanford Lawyer |publisher=Stanford Law School |date=2003 |access-date=2025-12-30}}</ref>

| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}

| author = Charles Scott, American businessman and former CEO of Intermark and Fuqua Industries {{Charles Scott/attribution}}

| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}