Welcome to our collection of quotes by Colonel Sanders. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Colonel Sanders
Colonel Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (also known as KFC) and later acting as the company's brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company. The title "colonel" is an honorific title, the highest awarded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Kentucky Colonel, and is not a military rank. The Governor of Kentucky bestows the honor of a colonel's commission, by issuance of letters patent.
Sanders held a number of jobs in his early life, such as steam engine stoker, insurance salesman, and filling station operator. He began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in North Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. During that time, Sanders developed his "secret recipe" and his patented method of cooking chicken in a pressure fryer. Sanders recognized the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, and the first KFC franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952. When his original restaurant closed, he devoted himself full-time to franchising his fried chicken throughout the country.
The company's rapid expansion across the United States and overseas became overwhelming for Sanders. In 1964, then 73 years old, he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey for $2 million ($16.7 million today). However, he retained control of operations in Canada, and he became a salaried brand ambassador for Kentucky Fried Chicken. In his later years, he became highly critical of the food served by KFC restaurants, as he believed they had cut costs and allowed quality to deteriorate.
I'm against retiring. The thing that keeps a man alive is having something to do.
One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better.
I think a dream is just a suggestion to start something out, do something.
My life is devoted to business and supporting my family.
Work is the basis of living. I'll never retire. A man'll rust out quicker than he'll wear out.
People are just like farm equipment. They rust out quicker than they wear out.
I don't fear that a man will wear out as quickly as he will rust out.
Hard work beats all the tonics and vitamins in the world.
Sitting in a rocker never appealed to me. Golf or fishing isn't as much fun as working.
I could see it wasn't going to be easy. I couldn't give a franchise to any old greasy spoon. And I knew the chicken had to be cooked the way I told them to cook it if it was going to be as popular as it could be.
I've only had two rules. Do all you can and do it the best you can. It's the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.
Feed the poor and get rich or feed the rich and get poor.
I was sixty-six years old. I still had to make a living. I looked at my social security check of 105 dollars and decided to use that to try to franchise my chicken recipe. Folks had always liked my chicken.
The hard way builds solidly a foundation of confidence that cannot be swept away.
My life isn't over and I'm not going to sit in a rocking chair and take money from the government.
I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it. I know.
I'm too drunk to taste this chicken.
I've read hundreds of cookbooks. For my money, they are the bird.
To me, my recipes are priceless.
I've only had two rules: Do all you can and do it the best you can. It's the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.
No hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me.
The food I've liked in my time is American country cookin'.
I am not too proud of having my name associated with some of my restaurants.
There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can't do any business from there.
Don't be against things so much as for things.
I've read hundreds of cookbooks. Most of those cookbooks don't even tell you how to get a steak ready, how to bake biscuits or an apple pie.
I always hired widows with children, because they had to work and didn't have any foolishness about them.
A lot of learned men think people really are the food they've eaten.
I've got no idea when I am going to retire. Whenever they pick me up and take me to the funeral home, I guess.
You got to like your work. You have got to like what you are doing, you have got to be doing something worthwhile so you can like it -- because it is worthwhile, that it makes a difference, don't you see?