We've got thousands of investors counting on us. And we're a team of thousands of employees all counting on each other. That's fun.

Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy-they're given after all. Choices can be hard.

A lot of people – and I’m just not one of them – believe that you should live for the now. I think what you do is think about the great expanse of time ahead of you and try to make sure that you’re planning for that in a way that’s going to leave you ultimately satisfied. This is the way it works for me.

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.

Our premise is there are going to be a lot of winners. It's not winner take all. Other people do not have to lose for us to win.

You can work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon.com you can’t choose two out of three.

When you receive criticism from well-meaning people, it pays to ask, ‘Are they right?’ And if they are, you need to adapt what they’re doing. If they’re not right, if you really have conviction that they’re not right, you need to have that long-term willingness to be misunderstood. It’s a key part of invention.