Quotes from Carly Fiorina

Had anyone told me that I was going to have a career in business, I would have said, 'No way.'

Well, you know, I - again, even in the context of BP, I wonder about this government's priorities. The federal government's top priority right now should be the cleanup. And BP certainly has done so many things wrong. They need to be held to account.

I managed Hewlett Packard through the worst technology downturn in 25 years, the dotcom bust.

You can find lots of people like you through technology, and women in particular like communities.

The GAO just released a report that said 22 percent of federal programs fail to meet their objectives. The truth is we don't know how taxpayer money is spent in Washington, D.C., which is why I think we ought to put every agency budget up on the Internet for everyone to see.

We need more transparency and accountability in government so that people know how their money is being spent. That means putting budgets online, putting legislation online.

You know, every family and every business in California knows what it means to go through tough times.

Well I think money has been going into political campaigns for a very long time.

I don't think we're going to see the price of oil going down in the near future, that's the reality.

Don't think of yourself as a woman in business.

To build a great company, which is a CEO's job, sometimes you have to stand up against conventional wisdom.

My mother taught me about the power of inspiration and courage, and she did it with a strength and a passion that I wish could be bottled.

The truth is in California you can't build a new manufacturing facility, and businesses are leaving in droves because of bad government policy.

If you have a line of business - I know this as a CEO - or if you have a teenager - I know this as a parent - who have a spending problem, what do you do? You quit giving them money.

You know, I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.

People will respond to higher standards quicker than low ones. Pure Christian love dows not presuppose approval of all conduct.

Alignment and collaboration need not be fuzzy, ill-defined concepts for "let's just all get along." Effective teamwork is more than good manners and good will, although both help an organization function more effectively. Alignment results from shared goals. Collaboration results from shared measures of success.

For me, business is a story about people—what they are capable of when supported and challenged; what they can envision and create—which is why I like the business world.

We are a nation founded on a visionary and, at the time, radical idea. That visionary idea is that every human life has potential, and everyone has the right to fulfill his or her potential. That is what the Founders meant when they wrote "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

all the things I resent most about out-of-control government and the politicians who support it, grow it, or simply fail to deal with it, what angers me above all else is the knowledge that all of this waste and ruin is entirely preventable.

All triumphs are made of the same stuff: the right support, the right team, the determination to achieve the goal, lots of really hard work. And all triumphs are much more about choice than they are about chance.

What you are is God's gift to you, what you make of yourself is your gift to God.

I need debate and dialogue with others to test my own thinking and to make a decision. I test others' convictions or opinions by pushing on their arguments and seeing how strongly they will defend them. When challenged, do people shrink away from their own views, or do they stand behind them? When pressed, do people offer more data to support their position, or do they simply repeat the same things in a louder voice?

The hard truth about leadership and success is that it can never be taken for granted. It must always be invested in. When companies—or countries for that matter—begin to rest on their laurels and take comfort in their past triumphs or their present performance, the future begins to dim just a bit. The past is not prologue to the future. The future must always be built.