No business can continue to shrink. That can only go on for so long before irrelevancy sets in.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.

The common question that gets asked in business is, why? That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, why not?

We can't be in survival mode. We have to be in growth mode.

What we want to be is something completely new. There is no physical analog for what Amazon.com is becoming.

One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you.

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.

It's hard to find things that won't sell online.

Everything you are comes from your choices.

A company shouldn't get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn't last.

We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and thy're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.

Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.

Your subservience makes me uncomfortable.”That pissed me off. “Then you shouldn’t pay people to do things for you. End of story.

I'm not a born writer, and I don't enjoy writing.

Memory has the singular characteristic of recalling in a friend absent, as in a journey long past, only that which is agreeable.

And when you get where you’re going, you darn well better look great!

There would be no hair growing business today had I not started it.

Joy and life exist nowhere but the present.

In a market economy with the division and specialization of labor, people use others as means to achieve their ends. This is the essence of market cooperation.

It's simple arithmetic: "Your income can grow only to the extent you do."

Without me, Scrubs would be worse than the holocaust. But with me in it, it's turned into the lolocaust.