The bottom line is in heaven.

Attributed to Polaroid founder Edwin H. Land, this aphorism contrasts financial accounting (“the bottom line”) with a higher, non-monetary standard (“in heaven”). Read in the context of Land’s reputation for idealistic, research-driven innovation, it suggests that the ultimate measure of a life’s work is not quarterly profit but moral worth, human benefit, or fidelity to one’s principles—judgment deferred to a transcendent perspective rather than the marketplace. The line can also be taken as a critique of managerial reductionism: what matters most may be intangible (truth, beauty, responsibility) and therefore not fully capturable by ledgers or performance metrics.