James Cash Penney

Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.

I believe in trusting men, not only once but twice – in giving a failure another chance.

Selling is our No. 1 job. Never get away from selling a lot of merchandise personally. The more you sell the more you learn.

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

There’s no better friend to any merchant than a fair competitor.

No business can succeed in any great degree without being properly organized.

We wish all users of Ford cars to know what they are entitled to.

You should consider an employment change before you consider selling out.

…capitalism does live by crises and booms, just as a human being lives by inhaling and exhaling.

I have no Napoleonic dream. I’m just hard-working and pragmatic.

[On his first job in the mailroom of William Morris a casting agency] It was the first time in the my life that I thought ‘I can do that.’

It is flagrantly dishonest for an advertising agent to urge consumers to buy a product which he would not allow his own wife to buy.

Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image.

There is a time and place for all things to be successful. There is fate and destiny and opportunity, and you need all three things in line at the same time.

I live on a plane. I like to visit London. If I had to think where I could live if not Moscow, London would be my first choice, and second would be New York. In Moscow I feel most comfortable. I’m used to four different seasons; it’s difficult for people in London to understand. People brought up in Russia like my kids want to play in the snow.

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

We know everything about our clients – if they like their dressing gowns heated, what colour flowers they like, if their chef works left-handed – we know everything and we incorporate it into our work for them.

[On Laura Nyro] I said to Laura ‘You know Laura, I think we should sell your music publishing company. I think right now is the right time you have three songs in the top ten this may never happen again and I think we can get a lot of money for it.’ And I made a deal with Clive Davis to sell Tuna Fish Music for $4 million. And that was a hell of a lot of money in 1969. It made her famous, it made her rich. It got people to listen to her music with her singing.

A touch of the jitters sharpens the mind, gets the adrenaline flowing and helps you to focus.

What right have you, save service to the world, to think that other men’s labor should contribute to your gains?

I’ve been making deals all my life.