Top 160 Jeff Bezos Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “We’re working to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system. Accomplishing this mission will take time, and we’re working on it methodically.”

— Jeff Bezos

102. “What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you – what used to be a tail wind is now a head wind – you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn’t a strategy.”

— Jeff Bezos

103. “Strip malls are history.”

— Jeff Bezos

104. “Are you lazy or just incompetent?”

— Jeff Bezos

105. “We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and thy’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.”

— Jeff Bezos

106. “Our success at Amazon is a function of how many experiments we do per year, per month, per week, per day.”

— Jeff Bezos

107. “To get something new done you have to be stubborn and focused, to the point that others might find unreasonable.”

— Jeff Bezos

108. “We change our tools and then our tools change us.”

— Jeff Bezos

109. “What’s dangerous is not to evolve.”

— Jeff Bezos

110. “Do something you’re very passionate about, and don’t try to chase what is kind of the “hot passion” of the day.”

— Jeff Bezos

111. “Any business plan won’t survive its first encounter with reality. The reality will always be different. It will never be the plan.”

— Jeff Bezos

112. “We watch our competitors, learn from them, see the things that they were doing for customers and copy those things as much as we can.”

— Jeff Bezos

113. “There’ll always be serendipity involved in discovery.”

— Jeff Bezos

114. “My grandfather taught me that it is harder to be kind than it is to be clever.”

— Jeff Bezos

115. “Our garage was basically science fair central.”

— Jeff Bezos

116. “We like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what’s on the other side.”

— Jeff Bezos

117. “Above all else, align with customers. Win when they win. Win only when they win.”

— Jeff Bezos

118. “Part of company culture is path-dependent. It’s the lessons you learn along the way.”

— Jeff Bezos

119. “Maintain a firm grasp of the obvious at all times.”

— Jeff Bezos

120. “Our biggest cost is not power, or servers, or people. It’s lack of utilization. It dominates all other costs.”

— Jeff Bezos

121. “There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment.”

— Jeff Bezos

122. “Things never go smoothly.”

— Jeff Bezos

123. “People don’t want gadgets, they want services.”

— Jeff Bezos

124. “Not the outcome any of us wanted.”

— Jeff Bezos

125. “Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?”

— Jeff Bezos

126. “You collect as much data as you can, you immerse yourself in that data but then you make the decision with your heart.”

— Jeff Bezos

127. “For people who are readers, reading is important to them.”

— Jeff Bezos

128. “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.”

— Jeff Bezos

129. “Position yourself with something that captures your curiosity, something that you’re missionary about.”

— Jeff Bezos

130. “I like to be counted on.”

— Jeff Bezos

131. “The thing about inventing is you have to be both stubborn and flexible. The hard part is figuring out when to be which.”

— Jeff Bezos

132. “If you’re not doing something that people will remark on, then it’s going to be hard to generate word of mouth.”

— Jeff Bezos

133. “Failure comes part and parcel with invention. It’s not optional.”

— Jeff Bezos

134. “People have a voracious appetite for a better way, and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’.”

— Jeff Bezos

135. “If you’re long-term oriented, customer interests and shareholder interests are aligned.”

— Jeff Bezos

136. “It’s perfectly healthy-encouraged, even- to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.”

— Jeff Bezos

137. “What characteristics do I look for when hiring somebody? That’s one of the questions I ask when interviewing. I want to know what kind of people they would hire.”

— Jeff Bezos

138. “We are pioneers and the history of pioneers is not that good.”

— Jeff Bezos

139. “Read the Declaration of Independence to your children as a tradition every Fourth of July. Make sure they understand why the word “pursuit” precedes the word “happiness.””

— Jeff Bezos

140. “If you’re doing anything interesting in the world, you are going to have critics. You can’t stop it. Move forward. It’s not worth losing any sleep over.”

— Jeff Bezos

141. “It’s very important for entrepreneurs to be realistic. So if you believe on that first day while you’re writing the business plan that there’s a 70 percent chance that the whole thing will fail, then that kind of relieves the pressure of self-doubt.”

— Jeff Bezos

142. “You’ve worn me down” is an awful decision-making process. It’s slow and de-energizing. Go for quick escalation instead – it’s better.”

— Jeff Bezos

143. “Feel free to cover Amazon any way you want. Feel free to cover Jeff Bezos any way you want.”

— Jeff Bezos

144. “We see our customers as invited guests to a party and we are the hosts.”

— Jeff Bezos

145. “Start With the Customer and Work Backward.”

— Jeff Bezos

146. “I think if people read more, that is a better world.”

— Jeff Bezos

147. “One of the things that gets me up in the morning is knowing that customer expectations are always rising, and I find that very exciting.”

— Jeff Bezos

148. “E-mail has some magical ability to turn off the politeness gene in a human being.”

— Jeff Bezos

149. “The thing that motivates me is a very common form of motivation. And that is, with other folks counting on me, it’s so easy to be motivated.”

— Jeff Bezos

150. “Many of the traits that make Amazon unusual are now deeply ingrained in the culture. In fact, if I wanted to change them, I couldn’t. The cultures are self-reinforcing, and that’s a good thing.”

— Jeff Bezos