It doesn't do Costco any good if nobody can afford to buy anything.

You just can't get too focused on worrying about what's going to happen in the next quarter. You have to worry about where the business is headed long-term.

You destroy the initiative of the working people if they don't feel they have a fighting chance to be a part of the American Dream.

One of the strengths of our nation has always been a strong middle class who could afford their own homes and send their children to school.

We would rather have our employees running our business.

We are a company that promotes 100% within the company.

You don't have a very motivated working class, it starts to affect the dynamics of the economy. If workers are disenchanted and disenfranchised, productivity losses will go along with that.

It doesn't do Costco any good if nobody can afford to buy anything.

If we take care of the business and keep our eye on the goal line, the stock price will take care of itself.

We want to turn our inventory faster than our people.

In the final analysis, you get what you pay for.

We've always been in favor of improved wages for workers. When you have a strong middle class, they want to buy more stuff at Costco.

When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors.

We always strive to be the best in the wage package.

Everybody is watching you every minute anyways. If they think the message you're sending out is phony, they're going to say, 'Who does he think he is?' It's again good business. But it is also an obligation.

I say at our management conferences that the amount Wal-Mart grows in just one year is the equivalent of Costco's size.

I think that most of the people running companies today are motivated and pay is a small portion of the motivation.

If somehow a proclamation were made that C.E.O.'s could only make a maximum of $300,000 a year, you would not have any shortage of very qualified men and women seeking the jobs.

If you're going to say to all the people that you're working with, 'We want you to treat the customers honestly; don't lie and don't cheat,' it is somewhat hypocritical if you're not following the same rules.

If you've got to work for the rest of your life, you'd better do something you'll enjoy.

It doesn't do much good to have a quality image, whether it's with the facility or whether it's with the merchandise, if you don't have real quality people taking care of your customers.

Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company.

Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company. The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.

Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do but it makes for good business.

The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.

When you hire good people, and you provide good jobs and good wages and a career, good things are going to happen.

You take an educated gamble. If you don't occasionally make a mistake, you're not doing your job.

When employees are happy they are your very best ambassadors.

Its like heroin You do a little and you want a little bit more. Raising prices is the easy way.

Our attitude is that if you hire good people and pay them a fair wage, then good things will happen for the company.

Paying good wages is not in opposition to good productivity.

My grandfather Frank Lloyd Wright wore a red sash on his wedding night. That is glamour!

You don't go out and change your gender for a television show, O.K.? It ain't happening. I don't care who you are.

I am the god of being messy - I'm trying to get better. I was terrible in my 20s. My kids are much tidier than I am, I don't know where they get it from, maybe their mother.

My books may highlight corruption, brutality and venality, but they also show that if these things come to light, there is rectification. The voiceless do have a voice; democratic mechanisms and accountability do exist.

I think prejudice has gotten to a point where a lot of people hold biases in their mind and don't even realize that they're doing it, because it's deeply ingrained in the fabric of what it means to be an American.

As we segregate by income into different communities, schools in lower-income areas have fewer resources than ever.

In the Middle Ages and beyond, the target was the Court Jew who had the ear of the ruler; during the Inquisition it was the Spanish Jews who thrived after their conversion to Christianity.

I can go out in public without being recognized. If I want to be recognized in public, it will happen.

It's one thing to read about how makeup is applied. It's another thing altogether to watch it being put on.

When I'm working on a book, I constantly retype my own sentences. Every day I go back to page one and just retype what I have. It gets me into a rhythm.

The first red carpet I did was at New York's Paris Theatre... It was this beautiful night, and everyone is screaming my name. I'm the least pretentious actress you can ever meet. Someone said to me that I look like I've been doing this forever, and I said that's because I watch E!

I think it's inevitable that aviation is a part of the economic growth that surrounds airports.

Gender inequality is not one problem, it's a collection of problems.

In fact, looking at the darkest sides of the United States has only made me appreciate the things that we do right, the things that we do beautifully. We are, for all of our mistakes and all of our crimes, a remarkable place.

You wake up white, and you think about certain things every day. You wake up black, and you think about certain things. You wake up Chinese, and you think certain things - but those things aren't major. What's major is that you are good at your craft.

I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.

Irish people are educated not only about artistry but local history.

I find myself to be quite sarcastic, and I wouldn't want to be with someone who didn't get that.