The Relation of Morality in Business Decisions

4/29/2026

Ida M. Tarbell on the Relation Between Morals and Business

A high-quality, black-and-white image of Ida M. Tarbell standing for a picture from the early 20th Century.

Ida M. Tarbell, author / speaker

The brain is an accommodating organ. …

You can persuade it to believe as you will, but once turned from the habit of giving you what is true … to giving you what you would like to be true …

… you can never count on it [your mind] again.

Testing the Tariff's Moral Effects, Ida M. Tarbell, 1911

I am re-reading some of Ms. Tarbell's works from 1911 and I always find amazing quotes in her written perceptions of truth, justice and the "American Way."

I have written at times on the difference between 21st Century Chief Executives who seek to run a business "legalistically" and those truly great executives who run a business based on "ethics and morals" … along ideas as simple as The Golden Rule.

May I never reach an age so old that I default in my beliefs to simply believing what "I would like to be true!"

Peter E. Greulich, 2026

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