Richard Branson

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.

I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It’s done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.

Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.

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

They encouraged me to always look for the good in people instead of assuming the worst and trying to find fault.

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.

Everyone makes mistakes. The wise are not people who never make mistakes, but those who forgive themselves and learn from their mistakes.

The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.

It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected.

When women come up to me like, ‘I am a freaking senator,’ or, ‘I’m a doctor,’ it’s like, ‘Damn, y’all like me? I look up to y’all!’

Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know.

My attitude is never to be satisfied, never enough, never.

Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it.

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

Experience is the harvest of life, and every harvest is the result of a sowing. The experience which young people must crave is that of success in some service for which they are naturally fitted.

Love is kind, it’s clear. It’s effortless, and it’s irresistible.

[on Diana’s Death] Disbelief, refused to accept it.

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.

No American ought to be compelled to strike for his rights. He ought to receive them naturally, easily, as a matter of course.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.

Don’t make me put your head in my blender!