James Cash Penney

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

The best of merchandise will go back to the shelf unless handled by a conscientious, tactful salesman.

Responsibilities are given to him on whom trust rests. Responsibility is always a sign of trust.

The keystone of successful business is cooperation. Friction retards progress.

No company can afford not to move forward. It may be at the top of the heap today but at the bottom of the heap tomorrow, if it doesn’t.

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

Our clients pay for value. London is the top city in the world, the best tax haven in the world for some and the top residential site in the city is One Hyde Park at the top end of Sloane Street.

It is only by being bold that you get anywhere. If you are a risk-taker, then the art is to protect the downside.

Without hustle, talent will only carry you so far.

Luck is always the last refuge of laziness and incompetence.

You can’t tell me you can make any system or country work with low wages and high prices, and high wages with high prices don’t mean anything when the prices eat up the wages and don’t leave anything over.

In the Ford Motor Company we emphasize service equally with sales.

[To his ex-entertainment lawyer Eric Eisner who resigned from the presidency of The David Geffen Company in 1991 just as a deal was about to be made with some Japanese] Keep your stock. [Eric sold it.]

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

The best way to make money in business is not to think too much about making it.

There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50 per cent more readers.

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

When you are in real estate, you are going to make some mistakes.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

The Golden Rule finds no limit of application in business.

Acquiring the habit of note-taking is therefore a wonderfully complementary skill to that of listening.