Quotes from Charles Koch

We are not trying to prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding. Any business that's economical, that can succeed in the marketplace, any form of energy, we're all for. As a matter of fact, we're investing in quite a number of them, ourselves - whether that's ethanol, renewable fuel oil.

The successful companies try to keep the new entrants down. Now that's great for a company like ours. We make more money that way because we have less competition and less innovation. But for the country as a whole, it's horrible.

The easy way to make money is to get special political privilege. From the beginning of time, business has cozied up to government and gotten restrictions on competition and subsidies and stuff.

I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington.

I studied what principles under-laid peace and prosperity and concluded the only way to achieve societal well-being was through a system of economic freedom.

I try to hire people who will challenge and have the humility to be challenged - people who have basically good values.

To end cronyism we must end government's ability to dole out favors and rig the market.

We are on dangerous terrain when government picks winners and losers in the economy by subsidizing favored products and industries.

In business, real jobs profitably produce goods and services that people value more highly than their alternatives. Subsidizing inefficient jobs is costly, wastes resources, and weakens our economy.

Most power is power to coerce somebody. We don't have the power to coerce anybody.

Any of the social changes in American history are because people thought there was injustice. We have to show that this corporate welfare and cronyism is unjust - and that it's not only rigging the system so people get wealthy who don't deserve to get wealthy.

Far too many well-connected businesses are feeding at the federal trough. By addressing corporate welfare as well as other forms of welfare, we would add a whole new level of understanding to the notion of entitlement reform.

The country - or the government - is headed for bankruptcy. So we're going to be continuing to speak out against corporate welfare as something that hurts everybody except those direct beneficiaries.

I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.

Far too many businesses have been all too eager to lobby for maintaining and increasing subsidies and mandates paid by taxpayers and consumers.

A truly free society is based on a vision of respect for people and what they value.

I want my legacy to be greater freedom, greater prosperity and a better way of life for my family, our employees and all Americans. And I wish the same for every nation on earth.

I think our biggest problem in society is we're headed more and more toward a two-tiered society. That is, creating welfare for the wealthy and destroying opportunities for the disadvantaged.

People should only profit to the extent they make other peoples lives better.

You pass a program and get people dependent on it, making it brutal to get rid of. The key is not letting it get started.

Success is one of the worst enemies of success, because success tends to breed complacency and lack of humility.

I don't want to dedicate my life to getting publicity.

The best way to make money is to have more economic freedom, which is why we are one of the very few large companies that are consistently for it.

Our elected officials would do well to remember that the most prosperous countries are those that allow consumers - not governments - to direct the use of resources. Allowing the government to pick winners and losers hurts almost everyone, especially our poorest citizens.