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

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.

You’ll learn more about a road by traveling it than by consulting all the maps in the world.

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.

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.

The most difficult crime to track is the one which is purposeless.

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

In an artist’s life, death is perhaps not the most difficult thing.

To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.

Your attitude towards problems, difficulties, and adversities is the most important factor in overcoming them.

A peace talk is always difficult, always complicated.

Being human is difficult. Some people make it more difficult than others. I was one of those people.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.