James Cash Penney

I do not believe in excuses. I believe in hard work as the prime solvent of life’s problems.

No company can afford not to move forward. It may be at the top of the heap today but at the bottom of the heap tomorrow, if it doesn’t.

Do not primarily train men to work. Train them to serve willingly and intelligently.

A store’s best advertisement is the service its goods render, for upon such service rest the future, the good-will, of an organization.

Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence begets trust. Service brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership.

Clock watchers never seem to be having a good time.

If you love what you do, if you love going to the office, if you really like it – not just say it, but really like it – it keeps you young and energised. I really love what I do.

[‘Why don’t you manage me’ – Laura Nyro] Eventually I thought do I really believe that she could be one of the biggest stars in the world? Should I give up my career at this point in my life, where I’m doing so well, and put all my marbles in Laura’s [Nyro] basket? And I woke up one morning and I thought if you really believe it – go for it.

Work is our sanity, our self-respect, our salvation. The day’s work is the center of everything.

Our clients pay for value. London is the top city in the world, the best tax haven in the world for some and the top residential site in the city is One Hyde Park at the top end of Sloane Street.

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

On Beverly Hills we paid too much. One hundred per cent, we did over-pay. We didn’t do our research properly.

Hire character. Train skill.

I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.

Paying good wages is not charity at all-it is the best kind of business.

I cannot remember a time when the Golden Rule was not my motto and precept, the torch that guided my footsteps.

The other people I don’t take too seriously are the critics-except when they stand in the way of my projects. In my opinion, they mostly write to impress each other, and they’re just as swayed by fashions as anyone else. One week it’s spare glass towers they are praising to the skies. The next week, they’ve rediscovered old, and they’re celebrating detail and ornamentation.

While several parties have expressed interest in buying the company, I’m not shopping it, I haven’t sold it and I’m not about to sell it.

If you can run one business well, you can run any business well.

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

I always said that mega-mergers were for megalomaniacs.