James Cash Penney

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

Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.

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

Every man must decide for himself whether he shall master his world or be mastered by it.

We get real results only in proportion to the real values we give.

The thought in my mind was that I must be a good merchant. If I were a good merchant, the rest would probably take care of itself.

About half my time is spent on business operation type stuff.

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.

What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?

The way out of the depression is to start spending and doing things.

You have an idea of the way you think it is, and it’s not that way at all, it’s something else.

The problem with the bronco is to get on and stay on. This is the problem with the Golden Rule-to understand and apply.

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

There should be rivalry between men and between business.

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.

If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don’t let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.

Competition is the keen cutting edge of business, always shaving away at costs.

I just think people have a lot of fiction. But, you know, I mean, the real story of Facebook is just that we’ve worked so hard for all this time. I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? I mean, we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.

The quality of an organization can never exceed the quality of the minds that make it up.

When people are ‘stung’ in false investment schemes there are three causes; greed of something for nothing; sheer inability to know their mind; or infantile trustfulness.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa – and it’s about getting a balance.