Notable quotes about accounting: Difference between revisions
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| text = “Accounting 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>
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| text = It sounds extraordinary, but it’s a fact that balance sheets can make fascinating reading.
| author = Mary Archer, British scientist {{Mary Archer/attribution}}
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| text = I have no use for bodyguards, but I have very specific use for two highly trained certified public accountants.
| author = Elvis Presley, American singer and actor {{Elvis Presley/attribution}}
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| text = “We 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>
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| text = “To 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>
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| text = “It’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>
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| text = The word accounting comes from the word accountability. If you are going to be rich, you need to be accountable for your money.
| author = Robert Kiyosaki, author of ''Rich Dad Poor Dad'' {{Robert Kiyosaki/attribution}}
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| text = “Tell 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>
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| text = Capital isn’t this pile of money sitting somewhere; it’s an accounting construct.
| author = Bethany McLean, American journalist {{Bethany McLean/attribution}}
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| text = Companies run by engineers don’t make money, but companies run by accountants don’t make anything at all.
| author = Peter Krueger {{Peter Krueger/attribution}}
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| text = You have to understand accounting and you have to understand the nuances of accounting. It’s the language of business and it’s an imperfect language, but unless you are willing to put in the effort to learn accounting – how to read and interpret financial statements – you really shouldn’t select stocks yourself.
| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}
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| text = To be successful, you should concentrate on the world of companies, not arcane accounting mathematics.
| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}
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| text = “Accounting 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>
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| text = I thought I could start over, you see. But now I know you can never start over. Not really. You think you have control, but you are like a fly in somebody else's web. Sometimes I think that's why I like accounting. All day, you are only dealing with numbers. You add them, multiply them, and if you are careful, you will always have a solution. There's a sequence there. An order. With numbers, you can have control.
| author = Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States {{Barack Obama/attribution}}
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| text = Life is like accounting, everything must be balanced.
| author = Gail Godwin {{Gail Godwin/attribution}}
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| text = Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite riddles: How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? The answer: Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}
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| text = “We 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>
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| text = “History, common sense and experience tell us that at the heart of our markets are faith and trust in the honesty of corporate financial records. One who weakens that trust without good cause does no one a service.”<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>
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| text = In the long run, management stressing accounting appearance over economic substance usually achieves little of either.
| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/attribution}}
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| text = “When 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>
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| text = “Creative 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.”
| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}
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| text = Never call an accountant a credit to his profession; a good accountant is a debit to his profession.
| author = Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist {{Charles Lyell/attribution}}
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| text = “We 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>
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| text = Creativity is great but not in accounting.
| author = Charles Scott, American businessman and former CEO of Intermark and Fuqua Industries {{Charles Scott/attribution}}
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| text = I would argue that a majority of the horrors we face would not have happened if the accounting profession developed and enforced better accounting.
| author = Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway {{Charlie Munger/attribution}}
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