The death knell for any enterprise is to glorify the past -- no matter how good it was.

If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people, But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavours that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in five to seven years. We’re willing to plant seeds, let them grow—and we’re very stubborn. We say we’re stubborn on vision and flexible on details.

People who are right most of the time are people who change their minds often

If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we'll turn out all right.

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

One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you.

Cultures, for better or worse, are very stable.