“I suffer with you. I’ve never seen such stupid ballplaying in all my life!”

Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself.

In my experience, good executives don’t make mistakes.

If my competitor were drowning I’d stick a hose in his mouth and turn on the water.

Perfection is very difficult to achieve, and perfection was what I wanted in McDonald’s. Everything else was secondary for me.

The organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization.

There are things money can’t buy and hard work can’t win. One of them is happiness.

To an old leader will be born an idiot heir, weak both in knowledge and in war.

After there is great trouble among mankind, a greater one is prepared. The great mover of the universe will renew time, rain, blood, thirst, famine, steel weapons and disease. In the heavens, a fire seen.

It’s easy to have principles when you’re rich. The important thing is to have principles when you’re poor.

Creativity is a highfalutin’ word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.

If you do it first class and you don’t compromise values, and you don’t compromise quality, and you don’t compromise service, and you don’t compromise cleanliness, then everybody else who is the competitor has got to play catch-up.

When times are bad is when you want to build! Why wait for things to pick up so everything will cost more?

You’re only as good as the people you hire.

If I had a brick for every time I’ve repeated the phrase Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, I think I’d probably be able to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with them.

I was never much of a reader when I was a boy. Books bored me. I liked action. But I spent a lot of time thinking about things. I’d imagine all kinds of situations and how I would handle them.

We take the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else.

To choose a plain life, I choose neither to lose and nor do I gain, If happiness is not in my destiny, I refuse to accept pain.

Small voice gave me everything when I had nothing. Small voice, changed my life, It haunts me every night.

Death is with you all the time; you get deeper in it as you move towards it, but it’s not unfamiliar to you. It’s always been there, so what becomes unfamiliar to you when you pass away from the moment is really life.

Learning to say no is a critical element to access greatness in your life.

To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.

Now is the one time in my life I can be 100% selfish. I’m not married; I don’t have kids; I can focus on my career.

Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

Life is too short to play it safe.