Quotes from Howard Schultz

A great business has to have a conscience. You have to know who you are and who you are not.

You can't build any kind of organization if you're not going to surround yourself with people who have experience and skill base beyond your own.

Cutting prices or putting things on sale is not sustainable business strategy. The other side of it is that you can't cut enough costs to save your way to prosperity.

Cutting prices or putting things on sale is not sustainable business strategy.

I was taken by the power that savoring a simple cup of coffee can have to connect people and create community.

We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can't copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company.

At its core, I believe leadership is about instilling confidence in others.

If you want to achieve widespread impact and lasting value, be bold.

The premium single-cup segment is the fastest-growing business within the global coffee industry.

I'm much more concerned about America than the Democratic Party.

We can't wait for Washington. Business leaders are going to have to galvanize their own constituencies and do everything they can to demonstrate confidence in the economy, and I think that can be contagious.

I despise research. I think it's a crutch.

We sell tea in Starbucks, but I think the experience is very different. I think coffee is something that is quick - it's transactional. I think tea is more Zen-like. It requires a different environment.

The growth of the company and the license that Starbucks has is to participate in other food and beverage opportunities. We have a global business... and in many parts of the world, tea is much, much bigger than coffee, and we're going to bring tea and bring our capability and our understanding of what we've done for coffee to tea.

I think the most important thing that I think everyone in America must have is belief that wherever they live, whatever station they have in life, that the American dream is alive and well. I think the fracturing of trust and confidence is in the American dream.

We must restore the emotional relationship that people have to the idea of America, that no matter where you come from, no matter where you live, that you have access to the same opportunities that somebody who is born in privilege.

My kids probably started drinking coffee in their late teens.

Profitability is a shallow goal if it doesn't have a real purpose, and the purpose has to be share the profits with others.

America's leaders need to put their feet in the shoes of working Americans.

If you look at coffee, tea, food and juice, we think there are inherent opportunities. If you look at health bars or grab-and-go products that are in our stores, we think we can significantly enhance them and make them more widely available.

We live in an age where everything is based on the short term.

For Starbucks, there will be no shortage of the highest-quality arabica beans. I suspect that for some others there could potentially be a problem, not in the near term, but over time.

I think there is probably no better person to aspire to emulate than Steve Jobs and what he has done at Apple in terms of his leadership, his innovation, not settling for mediocrity.

Everyone starts strong. Success comes to those with unwavering commitment to be at the end.