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

In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.

Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.

I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change.

We’re going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build the future. And we need to do that. We need to do that to solve the problems here on Earth. It’s not about escaping

To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment.

Most large organizations embrace the idea of invention, but are not willing to suffer the string of failed experiments necessary to get there.

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

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out

I do get asked, quite frequently: ‘what’s gonna change in the next 10 years? I rarely get asked,…what’s not going to change? The answer to that question can allow you to organize your activities. You can work on those things with the confidence to know that all the energy you put into them today is still going to pay dividends in the years to come.

If you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.

We need big failures in order to move the needle. If we don’t, we’re not swinging enough. You really should be swinging hard, and you will fail, but that’s okay

If you never want to be criticized, for goodness’ sake don’t do anything new

If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon.

Most decisions should probably be made with around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow.

If you decide that you’re going to do only the things you know are going to work, you’re going to leave a lot of opportunities on the table

If you only do things where you know the answer in advance, your company goes away.

A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last.

In the old world, you devoted 30% of your time to building a great service and 70% of your time to shouting about it. In the new world, that inverts.

All businesses need to be young forever. If your customer base ages with you, you’re Woolworth’s

We don’t raise the prices, because we believe — and we have to take this as an article of faith – that by keeping our prices very, very low, we earn trust with customers over time

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful

The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.

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

If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.

We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details

We recently greenlit a particular Amazon Studios original. I was in doubt whether it would be interesting enough, but the team had a completely different opinion and wanted to go ahead. I wrote back right away with “I disagree and commit and hope it becomes the most watched thing we’ve ever made.” Consider how much slower this decision cycle would have been if the team had actually had to convince me rather than simply get my commitment.

There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.

We are comfortable planting seeds and waiting for them to grow into trees.

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