George Kaiser

“Maybe the perceived fact that smart, rich parents tended to have smart, rich kids was largely due to the fact that they also tended to have stay-at-home moms or nannies who read to their kids, held them, put mobiles over their cribs, playing those annoying ditties, and sent them off for SAT training at six months.”

“In the charitable world as in the business world, opportunities should drive budgets, not the other way around.”

“Those who have won the ovarian lottery by being born in an advanced society to loving parents have a special obligation to help restore the American Dream.”

“I suppose I arrived at my charitable commitment largely through guilt. I recognized early on that my good fortune was not due to superior personal character or initiative so much as it was to dumb luck.”

“If you are doing what everyone else is doing, there is probably not an opportunity there.”

“During the desperate depression of the 1980s, there were no oil and gas companies without net operating losses.”

“I prefer doing things rather than sitting around talking about doing things.”

“America's 'social contract' is equal opportunity... yet we have failed in achieving that seminal goal.”

“Truly, learning appears to be a reverse geometric progression with experiences at one hour, one day, one month or one year dramatically more influential and formative than later experiences. As has often been quoted, 85% of brain development takes place by age 3, and yet we spend only 4% of our educational dollars by that point.”

“If you are born into poverty, the chances are good that your children will be born into poverty. Find a way to give poor kids the same cognitive stimulus that rich kids receive, and they should end up with the same tools for success.”

“Naming rights are a seductive philanthropic inducement, yet more anonymous operational support may better advance the charitable purpose.”

“Rich, smart parents tend to have rich, smart kids - not because it's genetic but because they can create a home environment and sensory stimulation that lower-income kids often don't get.”