Top 44 Enron Quotes

By incentivizing Wall Street players to sniff out inefficient or corrupt companies and bet against them, short-selling acts as a sort of policing system; legal short-sellers have been instrumental in helping expose firms like Enron and WorldCom.

But indeed a market like California is not good for Enron.

When Enron collapsed, through court processes, thousands and thousands of emails came out that were internal, and it provided a window into how the whole company was managed. It was all the little decisions that supported the flagrant violations.

I happen to represent Enron here in Houston. We have many good corporate citizens here in Houston. Enron happened to have been one.

Larry, I spent probably most of my professional life helping to build Enron Corporation. I don’t think there was anyone that was as shocked by the – by the collapse of the company as I was.

There was loose talk of Enron management practices and reminders of a scandal at the University of Toronto, when a big donor corporation, Eli Lilly, was said to have vetoed the appointment of an academic who doubted the effectiveness of Prozac.

Most of the evil of the world comes about not out of evil motives, but somebody saying ‘get with the program, be a team player;’ this is what we saw at Enron, this is what we saw in the Nixon administration with their scandal.

If you look at the great frauds of all time, Enron had that phantom trading floor. What Herbalife has is it has phantom or fictitious customers.

What Enron was doing, what caused investors to embrace it in a rapture of baffled awe, was hiding debt.

Simply stated, sometimes journalists can only get their information from informants who must remain anonymous in order to protect their careers and sometimes even their lives: Watergate: Confidential sources. The Pentagon Papers: Confidential sources. Enron: Confidential sources.

I remember when I did my Enron film, my executive producers at the time felt very strongly that I should mock the Enron executives more viciously because everybody wanted that moment.

I think that the failures of Enron and WorldCom and other companies are partially failures of investors to recognize companies that are selling for a thousand times nothing, but chances are they may be worth only that.

Enron and 9/11 marked the end of an era of individual freedom and the beginning of personal responsibility.

You know Texas is – even more now that Enron has bit the dust – it’s held up on the back of small businesses.

Well, actually, I had been working as a consultant to former companies of Enron, or predecessor companies of Enron and, so, I joined in 1990 to really start our wholesale merchant business.

During the Enron debacle, it was workers who took the pounding, not bankers. Not only did Enron employees lose their jobs, many lost their retirement savings. That’s because they were at the bottom of the investing food chain.

Because the sad fact is that the Enron Corporation and others manipulated with unfortunately great effect the energy market in the West Coast starting in 2000.

Laws were changed and regulations repealed until an Enron can set sail without responsibility, supervision, or accountability.

If it were not for government regulation of big corporations, executives at companies like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, they could have cheated investors out of millions.

I wish I could undo what I did at Enron but I can’t. I understand that I deserve punishment. Your honor, I accept the prison sentence that you are about to impose and will serve it without bitterness.

I’ve never commented much about my experience at Enron except to say, when I was there, it was a much more pipeline and asset-oriented company.

Buying only what you know can end in disaster. Just think about Enron’s employees and business partners, the ‘locals’ who bought lots of its stock because they thought they were in the know.

People are treating the Stewart case as seriously as Enron when it’s really over trivia.

Enron Field in Houston, the Trans World Dome in St. Louis and PSINet Stadium in Baltimore are just three of the modern-day coliseums named for companies that have found new homes in bankruptcy court.

Are you familiar with 9/11? Building 7? You know what was in there? All the Enron stuff. I guess that building went down on its own.

I’m a good learner. I can dig in. I knew nothing about mark-to-market accounting when I started the ‘Enron’ film.

Enron had already collapsed and filed for bankruptcy protection by the beginning of 2002. But despite complaints from short sellers that corporations had used accounting gimmickry to inflate their profits, many investors thought the crisis at Enron was an isolated case.

The collapse of Enron was devastating to tens of thousands of people and shook the public’s confidence in corporate America.

Ken Lay, the disgraced former chairman of Enron, found a way to escape his legal problems: He died after being convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges.

Things that have happened with Enron and companies like that, where they’ve squandered their employees’ pension funds, I think it has brought a new level of anxiety. People don’t feel like they can trust their employer.

You don’t want another Enron? Here’s your law: If a company, can’t explain, in one sentence, what it does… it’s illegal.

Pete Wilson deregulated energy as a pay out to Enron, and we blamed Gray Davis.

Bush began helping Enron in the eighties.

We will not rest until the wooden stake is punched through the heart of the Enron lawsuit against us.

At the height of the Enron mania, the company’s market value was $65 billion. Once the dust cleared, the final value was $0.

But the most important thing is, Enron did not cause the California crisis.

You’re used to seeing values listed on waiting-room walls. Communication, integrity, excellence, and respect. Those were actually Enron’s values.

In the case of Enron, we balance our positions all the time.

Most unfortunately, Enron’s plunge into bankruptcy court also cost many of its rank-and-file employees their savings.

Ken Lay has, does and will continue to accept responsibility for the fall of Enron. He was the man at the controls. But failure is not a crime.

Was I believer in Enron Corporation? Yes, sir, I was.

I take full responsibility for what happened at Enron. But saying that, I know in my mind that I did nothing criminal.

Deception can cost billions. Think Enron, Madoff, the mortgage crisis. Or in the case of double agents and traitors, like Robert Hanssen or Aldrich Ames, lies can betray our country. They can compromise our security. They can undermine democracy. They can cause the deaths of those that defend us.

Before Enron, I think people were a bit more naive about the way things worked, and I think Enron pulled the curtain back on unsavoury practices that turned out to be a lot more widespread.