HERB KELLEHER

Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats, and leadership really involves responsibility.

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.

I guess the worst moment I ever had in business was the fear that Southwest Airlines wouldn't get off the ground.

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.

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.

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.

Wild Turkey whiskey and Philip Morris cigarettes are essential to the maintenance of human life!

I forgive all personal weaknesses except egomania and pretension.

Just because you don't announce your plan doesn't mean you don't have one.

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 clear, unmistakable sign of a bureaucrat is somebody who worries about whether he has a window.

A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.

When I started working on Southwest Airlines, I kid you not, only people flying on business and very wealthy people ever flew.

I tell my employees that we're in the service business, and it's incidental that we fly airplanes.

You can't have a mid-life crisis in the airline industry because every day is a crisis.

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.

It is my practice to try to understand how valuable something is by trying to imagine myself without it.

I've found that many of the greatest ideas surface in bars because that's where many people cultivate inspiration.

Keep costs low and spirits high, and the people of Southwest Airlines will keep LUV in the air.

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.

My suggestion is that if you need someone outside your company to prepare a mission statement for you, then you really don't know what your mission is, and you probably don't have one.

I've always said manage in good times so that you're ready for the bad times.

Fight hierarchy and bureaucracy as hard as you possibly can. Don't ever let it become the master; always remember it's the servant.

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 love battles. I think it's part of the Irish in me.