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

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.

There’s a lot more future in hamburgers than in baseball.

Tomorrow at sunrise I shall no longer be here.

Customers tend to avoid a restaurant that’s going aswamp in its own sludge.

Nothing in the world can one imagine beforehand,not the least thing,everything is made up of so many unique particulars that cannot be forseen.

If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.

None of Us is as Good as All of Us.

The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it.

You must perfect every fundamental of your business if you expect it to perform well.

McDonald’s is a people business, and that smile on that counter girl’s face when she takes your order is a vital part of our image.

The key to success is being in the right place at the right time, recognizing that you are there, and taking action!

I was an idiot when I was a kid.

I’d rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me.

Any idiot can see something wrong. But can you see what is right?

When something is made idiot proof, they will just make better idiots.

In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.

I don’t have to hear that criticism, that idotic criticism anymore.

What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?