Your margin is my opportunity.

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.

Fast can be good. Except when moving so fast and getting so far ahead of ourselves we no longer can recognize our mode of transportation or the wall we’ve hit prior to creating it.

Lyrically we tried to just not be the same as a lot of the other crap that is out there right now.

The lesson I learned in Cairo still applies. The only way to deal with bureaucrats is with stealth and sudden violence.

You can be revered for all sorts of qualities, but to be truly charismatic is rare. Elizabeth Taylor was, for me, one of those rarities.

Economics seeks to be a science. Science is supposed to be objective and it is difficult to be scientific when the subject matter, the participant in the economic process, lacks objectivity.

Desire is the factor that determines what your definite purpose in life shall be.

I believe that great success is possible in any field — from music to mathematics to macro trading.

Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one.

It is a shame to see in the work of an artist the limitations of his critics.

The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow, and when we lie down at night we may safely say to most of our troubles, "Ye have done your worst, and we shall see you no more."