Capital isn't scarce; vision is.

I learned early on that one of the secrets to campus leadership was the simplest thing of all: speak to people coming down the sidewalk before they speak to you. I did that in college. I did it when I carried my papers. I would always look ahead and speak to the person coming toward me. If I knew them, I would call them by name, but even if I didn't I would still speak to them. Before long, I probably knew more students than anybody in the university, and they recognized me and considered me their friend.

Expenses should never exceed one percent of our purchases.

Keep everybody guessing as to what your next trick is going to be. Don't become too predictable.

You can make a lot of mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you're too inefficient.

I've owned about 18 airplanes over the years, and I've never bought one of them new.

If one of our customers comes into the store without a smile, I'll give them one of mine.