James Cash Penney

Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence.

It was always my practice to train salespeople under my direct supervision, and to treat children with the utmost consideration.

Salesmanship is limitless. Our very living is selling. We are all salespeople.

The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts.

No serious-minded man should have time for the mediocre in any phase of his living.

Theory is splendid but until put into practice, it is valueless.

Exchange ideas frequently.

The Model T blazed the way for the motor industry and started the movement for good roads everywhere. It is still the pioneer car in many parts of the world which are just beginning to be motorized.

Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect.

I never went to business school. I was just bumbling through a lot of my life. I was like the guy behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz.

You can’t do this! We have an arrangement! We have a contract!

If you find out what men want and give them that, you are pleasing them. If you find out what is good for them and give them that, you are performing a service. That’s what we are trying to do.

It’s true we’ve got some fantastic clients. We’re very fortunate to be connected with the movers and shakers of all the global cities of the world. You can usually tell when we’ve got a client in here because their bodyguards are all over the place: two outside the front door, two in the lobby, one in the lift…

[on Steve jobs] Our relationship was based almost always on him calling up and asking, ‘Is this a good deal?’ I’m not in his business, and I wasn’t trying to be. I was just a guy who admired him a lot and was flattered he wanted my advice.

A monopoly of jobs in this country is just as bad as a monopoly of bread!

No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked; and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn’t actually fall down.

When most people ask about a business growing, what they really mean is growing revenue, not just growing the number of people using a service. Traditional businesses would view people using your service that you don’t make money from as a cost.

We started learning ourselves, understanding ourselves, reading, researching, going around the world and looking at what was defined as the very best.

I was never involved in arms trading. In the Russian Federation, arms trading is the prerogative of the state.

Well, I think that there’s a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you’re likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

I started the site when I was 19. I didn’t know much about business back then.