"Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that."
"The people of Southwest have always been my pride, my joy and my love. Their indomitable dedication and esprit de corps have taken Southwest from a three-airplane dream to a 500-airplane reality."
"A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear."
"Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats, and leadership really involves responsibility."
"When I started working on Southwest Airlines, I kid you not, only people flying on business and very wealthy people ever flew."
"I guess the worst moment I ever had in business was the fear that Southwest Airlines wouldn't get off the ground."
"I forgive all personal weaknesses except egomania and pretension."
"I think my greatest moment in business was when the first Southwest airplane arrived after four years of litigation, and I walked up to it and I kissed that baby on the lips and I cried."
"The spirit of Southwest Airlines is exuberant, it's caring, it's dedicated, it's diligent, it's fun, it's rewarding, it's a joy."
"I've found that many of the greatest ideas surface in bars because that's where many people cultivate inspiration."
"You can't have a mid-life crisis in the airline industry because every day is a crisis."
"Wild Turkey whiskey and Philip Morris cigarettes are essential to the maintenance of human life!"
"It is my practice to try to understand how valuable something is by trying to imagine myself without it."
"The clear, unmistakable sign of a bureaucrat is somebody who worries about whether he has a window."
"Just because you don't announce your plan doesn't mean you don't have one."
"I tell my employees that we're in the service business, and it's incidental that we fly airplanes."
"I'd say my mother made more of a difference to me than anyone else did. I know that's a conventional and perhaps mundane answer, but my family was blown apart at the start of World War II."
"One piece of advice that always stuck in my mind is that people should be respected and trusted as people, not because of their position or title."
"Keep costs low and spirits high, and the people of Southwest Airlines will keep LUV in the air."
"Southwest isn't a 'This is my job, that's your job' kind of company. Being successful is our job, and we're willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that."
"Who says a lighthearted approach to business is incompatible with success?"
"You can have parties without spending enormous sums of money."
"In 1996 - when, for the fifth year in a row, we had the best record among major airlines for on-time performance and for baggage handling and the fewest complaints for the number of customers carried - we dedicated an airplane to all of our 25,000 people. We put all their names on the outside of the overhead bins."
"I think flying is kind of an emotional experience."
"I don't really have any peeves, and I fly other carriers a good bit. My experience has been good in terms of getting on the airplane expeditiously and getting to my destination as need be, on time, with my bags - which I carry on."
