Notable quotes about accounting: Difference between revisions

| text = The word accounting comes from the word accountability. If you are going to be rich, you need to be accountable for your money. <ref>{{cite web |title=Accounts Payable Quotes: Advice, Sayings, and Accounting Knowledge from the Experts |url=https://www.netsuite.com/portal/resource/articles/accounting/accounts-payable-quotes.shtml |website=NetSuite |publisher=Oracle Corp. |date=2020-11-20 |author=Bridget McCrea |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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| text = Accounting is not just about compliance; it’s about upholding the ethical fabric of financial systems. <ref>...no primary/credible source found (appears only on aggregator sites)</ref>

| author = Samantha Wilson {{Samantha Wilson/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. <ref>{{cite web |title=Elvis, Taxes, and the CPA Dilemma: Why Your Bodyguard Should Be an Accountant |url=https://www.jsmorlu.com/ceo-corner/elvis-tax-cpa/ |author=John S. Morlu II |date=2025-12-01 |website=JS Morlu Blog |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

| author = Elvis Presley, American singer and actor {{Elvis Presley/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. <ref>...{{cite book |last=Buffett |first=Mary |title=Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements: The Search for the Company with a Durable Competitive Advantage |publisher=Scribner |date=2008}}</ref>

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

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| text = Accounting excellence is not just a skill; it’s a mindset of financial mastery. <ref>...</ref>

| author = Richard Turner {{Richard Turner/attribution}}

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| text = Accounting greatness is not just about what you calculate; it’s about the financial stories you unfold. <ref>...</ref>

| author = Christopher Miller {{Christopher Miller/attribution}}

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| text = Creativity is great but not in accounting. <ref>...</ref>

| author = Charles Scott {{Charles Scott/attribution}}

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| text = Never call an accountant a credit to his profession; a good accountant is a debit to his profession. <ref>{{cite web |title=Get to Know Conductor. We Think You’ll Like (and Trust) It. |url=https://harmonate.com/get-to-know-conductor-we-think-youll-like-and-trust-it/ |date=2021-04-23 |website=Harmonate Blog |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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| text = Capital isn’t this pile of money sitting somewhere; it’s an accounting construct. <ref>{{cite news |title=Why Warren Buffett Is Hiding $61 Billion in Plain Sight |url=https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/20/according-to-warren-buffett-accounting-numbers-are.aspx |work=The Motley Fool |date=2014-07-20 |author=John Maxfield |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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| text = Proper 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=Charlie Munger's Quotes On Academia, Accounting And More |url=https://hedgefundalpha...com/education/charlie-mungers-quotes-on-academia-accounting-and-more/ |author=HFA Staff |date=2015-06-07 |website=Hedge Fund Alpha |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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| text = Life is like accounting, everything must be balanced. <ref>...no primary source; widely attributed to Gail Godwin on quotes sites</ref>

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

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| text = “You have to know accounting. It’s the language of practical business life. It was a very useful thing to deliver to civilization. I’ve heard it came to civilization through Venice which of course was once the great commercial power in the Mediterranean. However, double entry bookkeeping was a hell of an invention.” <ref>{{cite web |title=The Investments Blog: Munger on Accounting |url=http://theinvestmentsblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/munger-on-accounting.html |author=Adam |date=2009-07-24 |website=Blogger |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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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.” <ref>{{cite web |title=68 Inspirational Quotes on Accounting |url=https://graciousquotes...com/accounting/ |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/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. <ref>{{cite web |title=Accounts Payable Quotes: Advice, Sayings, and Accounting Knowledge from the Experts |url=https://www.netsuite.com/portal/resource/articles/accounting/accounts-payable-quotes.shtml |website=NetSuite |publisher=Oracle Corp. |date=2020-11-20 |author=Bridget McCrea |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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| text = The reaction of weak management to weak operations is often weak accounting. <ref>{{cite web |title=68 Inspirational Quotes on Accounting |url=https://graciousquotes...com/accounting/ |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

| 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 web |title=Mark-to-Market Quotes |url=https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2008/09/mark-to-market-quotes.html |website=Calculated Risk |date=2008-09-30 |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

| author = Diane Garnick, Chief Income Strategist at TIAA {{Diane Garnick/attribution}}

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| text = To be successful, you should concentrate on the world of companies, not arcane accounting mathematics. <ref>{{cite web |title=The world’s best investors offer a secret on how to outperform the market in the long-run |url=https://www.valens-research..com/investor-essentials-daily/upld-upland-software-worlds-best-investors-offer-secret-outperform-market-long-run/ |website=Valens Research |date=2021-10-26 |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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| text = In the long run, management stressing accounting appearance over economic substance usually achieves little of either. <ref>{{cite web |title=68 Inspirational Quotes on Accounting |url=https://graciousquotes...com/accounting/ |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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| text = It sounds extraordinary, but it’s a fact that balance sheets can make fascinating reading. <ref>{{cite web |title=10 Funny and Inspirational Quotes for Accountants |url=https://www.btpartners..com/technology-blogs/10-funny-and-inspirational-quotes-for-accountants |website=BT Partners |date=2020-05-05 |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

| author = Mary Archer, British scientist {{Mary Archer/attribution}}

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| text = People don’t pay attention. And then one day there’s an accounting. And after that, nothing is the same.<ref>{{cite book |last=McCarthy |first=Cormac |title=No Country for Old Men |publisher=Alfred A... Knopf |date=2005}}</ref>

| author = Cormac McCarthy, American novelist {{Cormac McCarthy/attribution}}

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| text = It has been my experience that competency in mathematics, both in numerical manipulationsmanipulation and in understanding its conceptual foundations (accounting), enhances a person’s ability to handle the more ambiguous and qualitative relationships that dominate our day-to-day financial decision-making.<ref>{{cite web |title=Financial education |url=https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2003/20030403/default.htm |website=Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System |publisher=Federal Reserve |date=2003-04-03 |author=Alan Greenspan |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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| text = People are accustomed to thinking of accounting as dry and boring, a necessary evil used primarily to prepare financial reports and survive audits, but that is because accounting is something that has become taken for granted.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ries |first=Eric |title=The Startup Way |publisher=Crown |date=2017}}</ref>

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

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| text = The accountant is the unsung hero of today’s business. But how do you remember them? They count the beans and crunch the numbers. <ref>...no primary source; common saying in industry</ref>

| author = Mary E. Jones {{Mary E. Jones/attribution}}

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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. <ref>...{{cite book |last=Obama |first=Barack |title=Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance |publisher=Times Books |date=1995}}</ref>

| author = Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States {{Barack Obama/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. <ref>{{cite web |title=Warren Buffett Says This 1 Simple Habit Is the Key to Success. Here Are 19 Times He Did It in Public |url=https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/warren-buffett-says-this-1-simple-habit-is-key-to-success-here-are-19-times-he-did-it-in-public.html |author=Bill Murphy Jr. |date=2020-02-14 |website=Inc. |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

| author = Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway {{Warren Buffett/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. <ref>{{cite news |title=Munger on the 'Asininities' of Today's Regulators and Business Leaders |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/05/munger-on-the-asininities-of-todays-regulators-and-business-leaders/17894/ |work=The Atlantic |date=2009-05-20 |author=J.J. Gould |access-date=2025-12-26}}</ref>

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

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