Famous Quotes & Sayings

Larry Ellison

I think about the business all the time. Well I shouldn't say all the time. I don't think about it when I am wakeboarding. But even when I am on vacation, or on my boat; I am on email everyday. I am always prowling around the internet looking at what our competitors are doing.

Larry Ellison

So what makes me happy? I was really happy to build this house. That's it; building things. The trouble with software is that it's very hard to show your aunt in Florida what you've done.

Larry Ellison

I think you might see us growing much deeper into banking. You might see us acquiring companies in the banking area. You might see us acquiring companies in the retail area. I think you might see us acquiring companies in the telecommunications. I think you will see us getting stronger in business intelligence.

Larry Ellison

There's a wonderful saying that's dead wrong. 'Why did you climb the mountain?' 'I climbed the mountain because it was there.' That's utter nonsense...You climbed the mountain because you were there, and you were curious if you could do it. You wondered what it would be like.

Larry Ellison

I'm addicted to winning. The more you win, the more you want to win.

Larry Ellison

When I started Oracle, what I wanted to do was to create an environment where I would enjoy working. That was my primary goal. Sure, I wanted to make a living. I certainly never expected to become rich, certainly not this rich. I mean, rich does not even describe this. This is surreal. And it has nothing to do with money. I mean, you buy clothes with money, and cars. But I really wanted to work with people I enjoyed working with, who I admired and liked.

Larry Ellison

You have to act and act now.

Larry Ellison

Those that believe this is merely a downturn are mad. Our industry is going to mature and as something matures, the rate of innovation does slow.

Larry Ellison

I saw that we needed to grow but our top line wasn't growing, so we had to find other ways to grow the business. We had to reshape our business and acquire share in a non conventional way. But most tech leaders don't come out of a business background. They really have a parochial point of view. All they know are the go-go years of Silicon Valley. That's the environment in which they were raised.

Larry Ellison

You realize that life is short and fragile; and when you are facing walls of water, you understand your own mortality can change and how quickly things could change.

Larry Ellison

I'd prefer people read about Churchill and how he wasn't overwhelmed by Nazi Germany. Amazing; that the morale of a country rested on one person's shoulders. Extraordinary people carried that country through its darkest hours; truly inspirational. I suppose that's my theme. Whether it's a biography or a movie; whether it's fictional or true, I'm inspired by people doing great things.

Larry Ellison

I believe people have to follow their dreams-I did.

Larry Ellison

The most important aspect of my personality as far as determining my success goes; has been my questioning conventional wisdom, doubting experts and questioning authority. While that can be painful in your relationships with your parents and teachers, it's enormously useful in life.

Larry Ellison

To model yourself after Steve Jobs is like, 'I'd like to paint like Picasso, what should I do? Should I use more red?'

Larry Ellison

Because software is all about scale. The larger you are, the more profitable you are. If we sell twice as much as software, it doesn't cost us twice as much to build that software. So the more customers you have, the more scale you have. The larger you are, the more profitable you are.

Larry Ellison

Bill Gates wants people to think he's Edison, when he's really Rockefeller. Referring to Gates as the smartest man in America isn't right... wealth isn't the same thing as intelligence.

Larry Ellison

When you live your life in different ways, it makes people around you become uncomfortable. So deal with it. They don't know what you are going to do.

Larry Ellison

I am also involved with all the acquisitions and overall strategy. Now it's true, I don't run operations. But I've never really run operations. I've never had the endurance to run sales. The whole idea of selling to the customer just isn't my personality. I'm an engineer, tell me why something isn't working or is and I am curious.

Larry Ellison

You have to believe in what you do in order to get what you want.

Larry Ellison

I love sailing. I like it more when I am winning.

Larry Ellison

Five years from now, I don't know how I'll think.

Larry Ellison

Life's a journey. It's a journey about discovering limits.

Larry Ellison

If you do everything that everyone else does in business, you're going to lose. The only way to really be ahead, is to 'be different'.

Larry Ellison

When I do something, it is all about self-discovery. I want to learn and discover my own limits.

Larry Ellison

You can't spend as much money as I have, even if you try. I've been trying.

Larry Ellison

Great achievers are driven, not so much by the pursuit of success, but by the fear of failure.

Larry Ellison

The only way to get ahead is to find errors in conventional wisdom.

Larry Ellison

When you're the first person whose beliefs are different from what everyone else believes, you're basically saying, "I'm right, and everyone else is wrong." That's a very unpleasant position to be in. It's at once exhilarating and at the same time an invitation to be attacked.

Larry Ellison

When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.

Lady Randolph Churchill

It is so tempting to try the most difficult thing possible.

Lactantius

The first point of wisdom is to. discern what is false; the second, to know what is true.

Lady Bird Johnson

It is wonderful to be in on the creation of something, see it used, and then walk away and smile at it.

Lady Bird Johnson

Any committee is only as good as the most knowledgeable, determined and vigorous person on it. There must be somebody who provides the flame.