S. Truett Cathy

If it took seven days to make a living with a restaurant, then we needed to be in some other line of work.

I'm planning to be here forever, but I know at some point I'll probably have to give it up. If you live to 100, there's a very good chance you'll live forever. Because very few people die after 100.

If you have debt, you have to worry about it. I would challenge each of you to try to be debt-free.

I'd be resentful if shareholders who don't know the business tried to tell me what to do.

I have people say, 'I'll come to work for you for free,' and I tell my employees they have to compete with that.

We don't expect every operator to be Christian, but we tell them we do expect them to operate on Christian principles.

Putting people before profits is how we've tried to operate from the beginning.

I was not so committed to financial success that I was willing to abandon my principles and priorities. One of the most visible examples of this is our decision to close on Sunday.

You don't have to be a Christian to work at Chick-fil-A, but we ask you to base your business on biblical principles because they work.

We tell applicants, 'If you don't intend to be here for life, you needn't apply.'

I motivate what I see in young people because we employ about forty thousand young people in our various Chick-fil-A units. Some of them come to work because they need to work; others just work because they just like to work. There's nothing wrong with that.

I have always encouraged my restaurant operators and team members to give back to the local community.

I'd like to be remembered as one who kept my priorities in the right order.

It's a silent witness to the Lord when people go into shopping malls, and everyone is bustling, and you see that Chick-fil-A is closed.

I cook chicken for a living.

I see no conflict whatsoever between Christianity and good business practices. People say you can't mix business with religion. I say there's no other way.

I struggled to get through high school. I didn't get to go to college. But it made me realize you can do anything if you want to bad enough.

Why would I retire from something I enjoy doing? I can hardly wait to get here.

I've experienced poverty and plenty, and there's a lesson to be learned when you're brought up in poverty.

I lost two brothers in an airplane crash, both of them leaving a wife and kids. When I get to Heaven, that's probably the first question I'd like to ask: 'Why was it necessary?'

I had a low image of myself because I was brought up in the deep Depression.

In the Great Depression, you bought something if you had the cash to buy it.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To prove to the possum that it could be done.

Chick-fil-A is what it is today because of its people, purpose and product.

If a man can't manage his own life, he can't manage a business.