Its easy to have principles when you're rich. The important thing is to have principles when you're poor.

There's almost nothing you can't accomplish if you set your mind to it.

The key to success is being in the right place at the right time, recognizing that you are there, and taking action!

I was an overnight success all right, but 30 years is a long, long night.

McDonald's is a people business, and that smile on that counter girl's face when she takes your order is a vital part of our image.

It's easy to have principles when you're rich. The important thing is to have principles when you're poor.

It requires a certain kind of mind to see beauty in a hamburger bun. Yet is it any more unusual to find grace in the texture and softly carved silhouette of a bun than to reflect lovingly on the hackles of a fishing fly? Or the arrangements and textures on a butterfly's wing? Not if you are a McDonalds's man.

I put the hamburger on the assembly line.

As long as you're green, you're growing. As soon as you're ripe, you start to rot.

Happiness is not a tangible thing, it's a byproduct -- a byproduct of achievement.

None of Us is as Good as All of Us.

Creativity is a highfalutin word for the work I have to do between now and Tuesday.

When you're green, your growing. When you're ripe, you rot.

I guess to be an entrepreneur you have to have a large ego, enormous pride and an ability to inspire others to follow your lead.

Visions of McDonald's restaurants dotting crossroads all over the country paraded through my brain. I don't believe in saturation. We're thinking and talking worldwide.

Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?

I wasn't prepared for this big room with clattering typewriters and teletype printers. You could hardly hear yourself think.

Our aim was to insure repeat business based on the system's reputation rather than on the quality of a single store or operator.

Take calculated risks. Act boldly and thoughtfully. Be an agile company.

I believe in God, family, and McDonald's. And in the office, that order is reversed.