We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product' instead of, 'That's a hell of an ad.'

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

If you can't turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn't be in the ad writing business at all.

To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas.

I have learned that trying to guess what the boss or the client wants is the most debilitating of all influences in the creation of good advertising.

Whether or not the standard of living made possible by mass production and in turn by mass circulation, is supported by and filled with the work of us hucksters, I guess is something that only history can decide.

Advertising says to people, 'Here's what we've got. Here's what it will do for you. Here's how to get it.'

I have learned to respect ideas, wherever they come from. Often they come from clients. Account executives often have big creative ideas, regardless of what some writers think.

A good basic selling idea, involvement and relevancy, of course, are as important as ever, but in the advertising din of today, unless you make yourself noticed and believed, you ain't got nothin'.

We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product' instead of, 'That's a hell of an ad.'

Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.

I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.

There's no such thing as 'hard sell' and 'soft sell.' There's only 'smart sell' and 'stupid sell.'

I have learned that it is far easier to write a speech about good advertising than it is to write a good ad.

The secret of all effective originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.

I have learned that any fool can write a bad ad, but that it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one.

The sole purpose of business is service. The sole purpose of advertising is explaining the service which business renders.

The greatest thing to be achieved in advertising, in my opinion, is believability, and nothing is more believable than the product itself.

I have learned that you can't have good advertising without a good client, that you can't keep a good client without good advertising, and no client will ever buy better advertising than he understands or has an appetite for.

A good ad which is not run never produces sales.

I regard a great ad as the most beautiful thing in the world.

Fun without sell gets nowhere but sell without fun tends to become obnoxious.

What helps people, helps business.

Too many ads that try not to go over the reader's head end up beneath his notice.

If you don't get noticed, you don't have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming or without tricks.

Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret... to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink.

Plan the sale when you plan the ad.

Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.

Regardless of the moral issue, dishonesty in advertising has proved very unprofitable.

The secret of all effective advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.

Anyone who thinks that people can be fooled or pushed around has an inaccurate and pretty low estimate of people - and he won't do very well in advertising.

There is no such thing as a permanent advertising success.

Creative ideas flourish best in a shop which preserves some spirit of fun. Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.

When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.

The work of an advertising agency is warmly and immediately human. It deals with human needs, wants, dreams and hopes. Its 'product' cannot be turned out on an assembly line.

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects I think is still the secret of great creative people.

Theres no such thing as hard sell and soft sell. Theres only smart sell and stupid sell.

Keep it simple. Let's do the obvious thing the common thing but let's do it uncommonly well.

Hell, if I'd jumped on all the dames I'm supposed to have jumped on, I'd have had no time to go fishing.

What the hell difference does it make, left or right? There were good men lost on both sides.

A worker's paradise is a consumer's hell.

There's an inherent thing in me where, if things are going too smooth, I'll sabotage the hell out of them, just to make the music more of a sanctuary.

The Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock?

I just had one of those "what the hell are we doing" moments.

Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.

Looking back, I think we were all quite mature, surprisingly responsible. In earlier wars, boys of our age had just gone off to raise hell or enlist or both, but we stayed dutifully at our desks doing tomorrow's homework.

As memory may be a paradise from which we cannot be driven, it may also be a hell from which we cannot escape.

It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.