The killer app that got the world ready for appliances was the light bulb. So the light bulb is what wired the world. And they weren't thinking about appliances when they wired the world. They were really thinking about - they weren't putting electricity into the home. They were putting lighting into the home.

What's dangerous is not to evolve.

We expect all our businesses to have a positive impact on our top and bottom lines. Profitability is very important to us or we wouldn't be in this business.

There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.

But there's so much kludge, so much terrible stuff, we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet. That's where we are. We don't get our hair caught in it, but that's the level of primitiveness of where we are. We're in 1908.

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.

What we want to be is something completely new. There is no physical analog for what Amazon.com is becoming.

Because, you know, resilience - if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you'd be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn't a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

The killer app that got the world ready for appliances was the light bulb. So the light bulb is what wired the world. And they weren't thinking about appliances when they wired the world. They were really thinking about - they weren't putting electricity into the home. They were putting lighting into the home.

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.

There are two ways to extend a business. Take inventory of what you're good at and extend out from your skills. Or determine what your customers need and work backward, even if it requires learning new skills. Kindle is an example of working backward.

Amazon.com strives to be the e-commerce destination where consumers can find and discover anything they want to buy online.

Beautiful speech doesn't need protection, it's ugly speech that needs protection. We have these cultural norms that allow people to say really ugly things. You don't have to invite them to your dinner party, but you should let them say it.

For people who are readers, reading is important to them.

Humans are unbelievably data efficient. You don't have to drive 1 million miles to drive a car, but the way we teach a self-driving car is have it drive a million miles.

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you're going to innovate.

I don't know about you, but most of my exchanges with cashiers are not that meaningful.

I don't think that you can invent on behalf of customers unless you're willing to think long-term, because a lot of invention doesn't work. If you're going to invent, it means you're going to experiment, and if you're going to experiment, you're going to fail, and if you're going to fail, you have to think long term.

I don't want to use my creative energy on somebody else's user interface.

I know Elon, we're very like minded in many ways. We're not conceptual twins. One thing I want us to do is go to Mars, but for me it's one thing. He's singularly focused on that. I think motivation wise, for me I don't find that Plan B idea motivating. I don't want a plan B for Earth, I want Plan B to make sure Plan A works.

I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it's not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that's not why you do it. You do it because you have something meaningful that motivates you.

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.

I think the definition of a book is changing.

I'm a big fan of all-you-can-eat plans, because they're simpler for customers.

I'm skeptical of any mission that has advertisers at its centerpiece.

If you can't tolerate critics, don't do anything new or interesting.

If you don't understand the details of your business you are going to fail.

If you only do things where you know the answer in advance, your company goes away.

If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.

It is very difficult to get people to focus on the most important things when you're in boom times.

It's not an experiment if you know it's going to work.

Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful.

Millions of people were inspired by the Apollo Program. I was five years old when I watched Apollo 11 unfold on television, and without any doubt it was a big contributor to my passions for science, engineering, and exploration.

My own view is that every company requires a long-term view.

My view is there's no bad time to innovate.

One of the things it was obvious you could do with an online store is have a much more complete selection.

Part of company culture is path-dependent - it's the lessons you learn along the way.

People will visit Mars, they will settle mars, and we should because it's cool.

Percentage margins don't matter. What matters always is dollar margins: the actual dollar amount. Companies are valued not on their percentage margins, but on how many dollars they actually make, and a multiple of that.

Real estate is the key cost of physical retailers. That's why there's the old saw: location, location, location.

Strip malls are history.

The best customer service is if the customer doesn't need to call you, doesn't need to talk to you. It just works.

The common question that gets asked in business is, 'why?' That's a good question, but an equally valid question is, 'why not?'

The one thing that offends me the most is when I walk by a bank and see ads trying to convince people to take out second mortgages on their home so they can go on vacation. That's approaching evil.

The thing that motivates me is a very common form of motivation. And that is, with other folks counting on me, it's so easy to be motivated.

There'll always be serendipity involved in discovery.

We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.

What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don't actually improve their lives.