Pritzker Quotes

#1. Our works are the mirror wherein the spirit first sees its natural lineaments. Hence, too, the folly of that impossible precept, Know theyself; till it be translated into this partially possible one, know what thou canst work at.

Thomas Carlyle

#2. In my day job, I worry non-stop about making wise investments for long-term gains.

J. B. Pritzker

#3. Whilst Man, however well-behaved,
At best is but a monkey shaved!

Charles Darwin

#4. St. Louis has a lot of weird food customs that you don't see other places - and a lot of great ethnic neighborhoods. There's a German neighborhood. A great old school Italian neighborhood, with toasted ravioli, which seems to be a St. Louis tradition. And they love provolone cheese in St. Louis.

Andy Cohen

#5. All you need to do is to get clients in the hotel door; then they hand you their wallets for five days.

John Pritzker

#6. What I've learned is that the most troublesome people don't tell you 100% of the story, and keep some facts to themselves. They just don't give you the full picture, and that's very worrisome to me.

Penny Pritzker

#7. The law of love is the ultimate law because it is the negation of law; it is absolute because it concerns everything concrete. The paradox of final revelation, overcoming the conflict between absolutism and relativism, is love.

Paul Tillich

#8. Hyatt lost its appeal because it was too big a machine. It's easy to systematize economies of scale, but you slowly lose who you are.

John Pritzker

#9. By definition, startups are not constrained by the limits of established company culture. And so they push boundaries and develop new technologies and ways of doing things.

J. B. Pritzker

#10. I grew up in the motel business, and it evolved into hotels.

Penny Pritzker

#11. Women get 77 cents on the dollar that men get for the same job.

Penny Pritzker

#12. I'm involved in issues, and issues are about grass-roots politics.

J. B. Pritzker

#13. Any business owner can tell you that if their company isn't performing profitably and up to standards, one of two things will happen: either you make changes to improve its efficiency, or a competitor will drive you out of business. Market forces have a way of cutting to the chase rather quickly.

J. B. Pritzker

#14. I like walking into a smaller hotel where the desk clerk recognizes me.

John Pritzker

#15. No one ever really leaves Hollywood. No one really leaves unless they are called away by God. Even then, the impulse would be to come back again and make a movie about the experience.

Shirley Maclaine

#16. Head Start has been a key component of health, nutrition and early learning opportunities since the 1960s.

J. B. Pritzker

#17. None of our family businesses were focused on technology. It was '93 when I came out of law school, and the Internet was taking hold. So I started New World Ventures.

J. B. Pritzker

#18. Everything, all of it ... it has been a huge mistake. This is what they need of you, isn't it? This is what idealists and visionaries ask of you - to make their mistakes for them.

Robert Jackson Bennett

#19. When candidates have asked me for support before, they have asked for more than a check.

J. B. Pritzker

#20. How the hell are you idiots allowed to run a country? I should have voted for a clown college. They'd at least have a reason for being this stupid.

Jonathan Maberry

#21. I wanted to build businesses from the time I was little.

Penny Pritzker

#22. The Wizard of Oz was a humbug. He's not great and powerful. He just pretends to be great and powerful. The Wicked Witch of the West is greater and powerfuller. She's got flying monkeys. She's like a mad scientist. She even has a secret weakness. Water is like Kryptonite to her.

Kelly Link

#23. Whatever you build, you're building for the family - not with an eye toward getting away, but with an eye toward adding to the family pie.

J. B. Pritzker

#24. Early education is the type of issue politicians nod their heads at, and then when it comes time to make a tough decision, a financial trade-off, inevitably it's about the first item tossed from the table.

J. B. Pritzker

#25. Early childhood education is an urgent educational, economic and moral imperative. Without it, we face a long-term national economic security crisis.

J. B. Pritzker

#26. I tend to be a person who starts with the presumption that I should trust you until you abuse the privilege, and then our relationship is forever changed. That's a very big line, and chances are it's not going to work if it's crossed. I warn people that this is how I'm going to deal with it.

Penny Pritzker

#27. I focus on supporting high quality early childhood health care and education. By betting my resources on very young children, I know I'm making an investment that pays guaranteed dividends with a high rate of return.

J. B. Pritzker

#28. I grew up in a household that revered building businesses. It wasn't thinking about leadership; it was more about building something. To build something, you ultimately have to lead.

Penny Pritzker

#29. If I have several bad guys and I only want to end up with one of them, then I have to decide which one I want in the end. And normally it's the one who is the most interesting talker.

Elmore Leonard

#30. This is life. It's messy and unpredictable, full of wonderful surprises and mind.numbing disappointment. the uncertainty of it all is why I hide, trying to avoid all the pain and the heartache.

Denise Grover Swank

#31. For most Builders, the journey is like shooting for the moon and instead hitting Mars-perhaps a better, but different outcome than envisioned. Builders are the first to admit (at least, in private) that planning works, but as the adage goes, the plan itself, rarely does.

Jerry I. Porras

#32. Businesses need to define what they need so training providers can offer up the right training.

Penny Pritzker