« Watercooler / Gordon Gekko 42.0
Gordon Gekko
Gordon Gekko (bio) is a fictional character from the 1987 film Wall Street by director Oliver Stone. Gekko was portrayed by actor-producer Michael Douglas, in a performance that won him an Oscar for Best Actor. Gekko will return in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps which is currently in pre-production. Gekko has become a symbol in popular culture for unrestrained greed (with the signature line, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good"), often in fields outside corporate finance. We've put together 42 quotable quotes uttered by Gekko in the movie.
- On Himself
- 1.0
- I am not a destroyer of companies, I am a liberator of them.
- On People
- 2.0
- The Ivy League schmuck: Bought my way in, now all these Ivy League schmucks are suckin' my kneecaps.
- 3.0
- The Harvard MBA type: Most of these Harvard MBA types - they don't add up to dogshit. Give me guys that are poor, smart, hungry - and no feelings. You win a few, you lose a few, but you keep on fighting.
- 4.0
- The Small Investor: The public's out there throwin' darts at a board, sport. I don't throw darts at a board - I bet on sure things.
- 5.0
- The Analyst: I loved it at 40, it's an insult at 50. They're analysts, they don't know preferred stock from livestock, alright? When it hits south, we raise the sperm count on the deal.
- 6.0
- The Fund Manager: You ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? Because they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered.
- 7.0
- The People around him: I'm up to my ass with more nuts than a fruitcake.
- Gekko's Business Conduct
- 8.0
- Now, listen, Jerry, I'm looking for negative control. Okay? No more than 30, 35 percent. Just enough to block anybody else's merger plans and find out from the inside if the books are cooked. If it looks as good as on paper, we're in the kill zone, pal. Lock and load.
- 9.0
- What the hell is Cromwell doin' givin' a lecture tour when he's losing 60 million a quarter? Guess he's giving lectures on how to lose money. Jesus Christ...if this guy owned a funeral parlor, no one would die! This turkey is totally brain-dead! OK, alright, Christmas is over, and business is business. Keep on buying, dilute the son of a b!@#$! Ollie, I want every orifice in his f!@#ing body flowing red.
- 10.0
- I want zip-locked mouths on the Bluestar deal, or I'm gonna personally come down there and rip out their f!@#ing throats.
- 11.0
- When I get a hold of the son of a b!@#$ who leaked this, I am going to tear his eyeballs out and suck his f!@#ing skull.
- 12.0
- Sell it all. What the hell, so we only make ten million.
- 13.0
- Where the hell are you? I am losing millions! You got me into this company and sure as hell better get me out or the only job you'll have on the Street is sweeping it! You hear me, Fox?
- 14.0
- Showdowns bore me, Larry. Nobody wins. You can have the company. In fact, it's gonna be fun watching you and your giant ego try and make a horse race out of it.
- 15.0
- Well now considering you brought my mother into it, 71.50.
- What impresses Gekko and what doesn't?
- 16.0
- Hope you're Intelligent.
- 17.0
- This is the kid. Calls me 59 days in a row, wants to be a player. Oughta be a picture of you in the dictionary under 'Persistence', kid.
- 18.0
- Buy a decent suit. You can't come in here looking like this. Go to Morty Sills, tell 'em I sent ya.
- 19.0
- Save the cheap salesman talk, will ya, it's obvious.
- 20.0
- It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.
- 21.0
- You want another chance? You stop sending me information, and start getting me some.
- How Gekko motivated others...
- 22.0
- Wake up, will ya pal? If you're not inside, you're outside, OK? And I'm not talking a $400,000 a year working Wall Street stiff flying first class and being comfortable, I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars buddy. A player, or nothing. Now you had what it took to get into my office; The real question is whether you got what it takes to stay.
- 23.0
- Money never sleeps, pal. Just made 800,000 Hong Kong Gold, it's been wired to ya. Play with it. You done good, but you gotta keep doing good. I showed you how the game works, now school's out.
- 24.0
- I'm gonna make you rich, Bud Fox. Yeah, rich enough, you can afford a girl like Darien. This is your wake-up call, pal. Go to work.
- 25.0
- Well, in my book, you either do it right, or you get eliminated.
- On Popularity
- 26.0
- Look I.. I have no illusions about winning a popularity contest, with any of you. I got roasted the other night - friend of mine asked, "Why are we honoring this man, have we run out of human beings?" I mean it's not always the popular guy who gets the job done.
- Defining Mixed Emotions
- 27.0
- Mixed emotions, Buddy. Like, Larry Wildman going off a cliff, in my new Maserati.
- On Friendship
- 28.0
- And if you need a friend, get a dog. It's trench warfare out there pal.
- On Love
- 29.0
- We're smart enough not to buy into the oldest myth running - Love. Fiction created by people to keep them from jumping out of windows.
- On Hard Work
- 30.0
- You work hard? I'll bet you stayed up all night analyzing that dogshit stock you gave me, huh? where'd it get you? My father, he worked like an elephant pushing electrical supplies and he dropped dead at 49 with a heart attack and tax bills..
- Mind over Matter
- 31.0
- Every battle is won before it's ever fought. Think about it.
- On What's of Value
- 32.0
- The most valuable commodity I know of, is information.
- 33.0
- Come on pal, tell me something I don't know, it's my birthday. Surprise me.
- On his Biggest Dislike
- 34.0
- I don't like losses, sport. Nothing ruins my day more than losses. Now you do good, you get perks, lots and lots of perks.
- On Society
- 35.0
- Democracy & free markets: Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, Buddy? It's the free market, and you're part of it. Yeah, you got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I still got a lot to teach you.
- 36.0
- Capitalism: This painting here? I bought it ten years ago for sixty thousand dollars, I could sell it today for six hundred. The illusion has become real, and the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at its finest.
- 37.0
- Value Creation: The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons; And what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own.
- On Money & Greed
- 38.0
- Sure now what's worth doing, is worth doing for money. If it's a bad bargain, nobody gains, and if we do this deal, everybody gains.
- 39.0
- It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a Zero Sum game - somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred - from one perception to another. Like magic.
- 40.0
- You see that building? I bought that building ten years ago. My first real estate deal. Sold it 2 years later, made an 800,000 dollar profit. It was better than sex. At the time, I thought that was all the money in the world; now it's a day's pay.
- 41.0
- The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men who built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake.
- 42.0
- The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms - greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind, and greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you.
