“Don’t be against things so much as for things.”

There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can’t do any business from there.

I’ve only had two rules. Do all you can and do it the best you can. It’s the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.

You got to like your work. You have got to like what you are doing, you have got to be doing something worthwhile so you can like it – because it is worthwhile, that it makes a difference, don’t you see?

One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better.

People are just like farm equipment. They rust out quicker than they wear out.

Feed the poor and get rich or feed the rich and get poor.

Hard work beats all the tonics and vitamins in the world.

I’ve read hundreds of cookbooks. Most of those cookbooks don’t even tell you how to get a steak ready, how to bake biscuits or an apple pie.

I just say the moral out of my life is don’t quit at age 65, maybe your boat hasn’t come in yet. Mine hadn’t.

I was sixty-six years old. I still had to make a living. I looked at my social security check of 105 dollars and decided to use that to try to franchise my chicken recipe. Folks had always liked my chicken.

Work is the basis of living. I’ll never retire. A man’ll rust out quicker than he’ll wear out.

I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it. I know.

I am not too proud of having my name associated with some of my restaurants.

To me, my recipes are priceless.

The food I’ve liked in my time is American country cookin’.

A lot of learned men think people really are the food they’ve eaten.

Sometimes I think God is trying to test me, both now and in the future. I’ll have to become a good person on my own, without anyone to serve as a model or advise me, but it’ll make me stronger in the end.

The last thing my father told me was: ‘On your way up, take me up. On your way down, don’t let me down.’ A father telling his son that puts some responsibility on my shoulders. He told me that, and I take it very seriously.

You have to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing.

Like love, the light or guidance of truth that influences us exists only in living form, not in principles or rules or expectations or advice, however widely circulated.

The best advice about getting older? Just be thankful you’re not dead!

Wait. Look. Notice. If you keep those three words in mind, you just might survive the next few days.

We are born as innocents. We are polluted by advice.

Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.