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.

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.

There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.

Every American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic circumstances.

Under current law volunteers who are not working with an official nonprofit organization are not covered by the Volunteer Protection Act. Therefore, there are absolutely no legal protections for the average American who wishes to volunteer.

There are those, I know, who will reply that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is. It is the American Dream.

The thing is there have been American movies that are similar to Solaris, like Alien had a lot of things that are similar, although it's also got the horror element.

On the road to equality there is no better place for blacks to detour around American values than in forgoing its example in the treatment of its women and the organization of its family.

The generic Canadian style of illustration is different from the generic American style.

But the deep desire for peace remained with the American people.

And while the U.S. can never be 100 percent safe from a future strike, our government is working around the clock on measures to protect the American people.

All we're getting from the Democratic majority in Congress and from this White House is more bailouts, more spending, more planned stimulus, more deficits and debt, and the American people have had it.

Who cares about that stuff? This is America, not Jerusalem. I'm an American. Let Harry be a Jew.

The greatest public health threat for many American women is the men they live with.

The belief that the good in American society will finally win out... I don't believe any more.

I suppose, in a way, this has become part of my soul. It is a symbol of my life. Whatever I have done that really matters, I've done wearing it. When the time comes, it will be in this that I journey forth. What greater honor could come to an American, and a soldier?

But the Congress has made the determination that certain kinds of information can be protected even though the American people may want to have access to information.

No one will burn out doing aerobic running. It is too much anaerobic running, which the American scholastic athletic system tends to put young athletes through, that burns them out.

I was on TV for almost sixteen weeks during American Idol. It's at the point now where it's old.

What I think we need to do to engage the American people in a conversation about entitlement reform is to have a bipartisan group of people who come together and put every solution on the table, every alternative on the table. And then we ought to engage in a long conversation with the American people so they understand the choices.