Richard Branson Quotations

You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.

We've always had a pretty competitive and pretty ferocious battle with British Airways... It's lasted now about 14 years, and we're very pleased to have survived it.

I think it's quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you've got another reason for keeping fit.

You never know with these things when you're trying something new what can happen. This is all experimental.

Nobody's ever called me Sir Richard. Occasionally in America, I hear people saying Sir Richard and think there's some Shakespearean play taking place. But nowhere else anyway.

Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that's what a number of us are trying to do.

The music industry is a strange combination of having real and intangible assets: pop bands are brand names in themselves, and at a given stage in their careers their name alone can practically gaurantee hit records.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

Well, the odds must be against anybody being able to fly around the world in a balloon on the first attempt. All of us who are attempting to go around the world in balloons are effectively flying in experimental craft because these craft cannot be tested.

Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you're likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day. I never do anything with a feeling of, 'Oh God, I've got to do this today.'

I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn't really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.

The funny thing is people won't let me pay for things. I'll be in a restaurant and the manager will say, 'Oh no, it's on the house.'

To me, business isn't about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It's about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.

For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility. And the responsibility for me is to invest in creating new businesses, create jobs, employ people, and to put money aside to tackle issues where we can make a difference.

Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won't make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa - and it's about getting a balance.

One thing is certain in business, you and everyone around you will make mistakes.

I cannot remember a moment in my life when I have not felt the love of my family. We were a family that would have killed for each other - and we still are.

And you know, I've had great fun turning quite a lot of different industries on their head and making sure those industries will never be the same again, because Virgin went in and took them on.

If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.

I love the freedom of movement that my phone gives me. That has definitely transformed my life.

Right now I'm just delighted to be alive and to have had a nice long bath.

So I've seen life as one long learning process. And if I see - you know, if I fly on somebody else's airline and find the experience is not a pleasant one, which it wasn't in - 21 years ago, then I'd think, well, you know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that I'd like to fly on.

Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.

I was dyslexic, I had no understanding of schoolwork whatsoever. I certainly would have failed IQ tests. And it was one of the reasons I left school when I was 15 years old. And if I - if I'm not interested in something, I don't grasp it.

Fortunately we're not a public company - we're a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.

Lightning is something which, again, we would rather avoid.

A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.

Like getting into a bleeding competition with a blood bank.

I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.

There's nothing like the endorphins from being fit, and the incredible endorphin rush that goes with that. It beats drugs, drink, and almost anything else I know.

The jet stream is a very strong force and pushing a balloon into it is like pushing up against a brick wall, but once we got into it, we found that, remarkably, the balloon went whatever speed the wind went.

We believe that within five years, 96 percent of British consumers will have access to the Internet, whether it be through a personal computer, a set-top box or a mobile phone.

We, we - as I say, we go in and shake up other industries and I think, you know, we do it differently and I think that industries are not quite the same as a result of Virgin attacking the market.

My philosophy is that if I have any money I invest it in new ventures and not have it sitting around.

I don't think so, in that Virgin is already a global brand. Brands like Amazon have had to spend hundreds of millions of pounds you know, building their brands, whereas Virgin is already well-known around the world.

And obviously, from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.

With the casino and the beds, our passengers will have at least two ways to get lucky on one of our flights.

My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.

I've been very lucky. I come from a very close family.

I'm a lad of the '60s. I started a magazine to try and end the Vietnam war, but it was a number of years before I had the profile, the financial resources and the time to do more.

We're introducing separate rooms with double beds in all of our planes so people can actually go with their partner and have a proper night's sleep.

Well, we know that people in Australia love the idea of both Impulse and Virgin Blue getting up and adding a bit of competition, and it's fun to be able to deliver it.

There is no one to follow, there is nothing to copy. We may even allow those aliens who landed here 50 years ago a chance to go home.

We're going where no one has gone before.

So if we were to set up base in this area, I think you would find that it would bring a lot of people to the area to watch the flights as well as fly.

My dad has put his hand up and will be 90 at the time, my kids definitely want to come and if there is room for my mum she will come as well,

Obviously we are disappointed about not making it when we had it in our grasp,

Peter Gabriel -- a Virgin artist for 20 years -- is still pre-eminent in the business. Whether the new artists will do the same is more questionable,

I am so excited by the thought of Virgin Cola taking on Coke and Pepsi in their home territory, ... I have always believed that you can never truly be an international cola until you have launched in the home of the colas -- America.

I am slightly biased, but I think it is an incredible achievement -- the last great aviation record left.

I am sorry to have let people down.

I have made it clear that I'm happy to become the largest shareholder in NTL and for other shareholders in Virgin Mobile to join me in taking shares in NTL. NTL has made a cash offer as well, and other shareholders can also accept the cash offer.

If the government go for the lowest-common-denominator approach, I don't think we will want to be involved. There's a danger the government will just go for the biggest return to the Treasury and not be interested in overcrowding issues, the quality of the food and the quality of the service.

He gave me a lot of very useful advice when I set up Virgin Atlantic 21 years ago. Perhaps his best advice was to make sure that I took BA to court before they bankrupted us not after, as he did.

We told him he had to land alive. He actually had to land alive, because if he didn't land alive he wouldn't get the record.

We told him he had to land alive.

He's just flown further than man, or woman, has ever flown. He has had pretty much no sleep since he set off from Kennedy a few days ago, and he has been through an incredible amount.

We look forward to a speedy conclusion to the takeover and working with Paul Little and the Toll group to map out the future direction of Virgin Blue.

He was a larger-than-life figure, with a wicked sense of humor, and a great friend.

I talked to her about it. She said that it was the best thing that could have happened to her. When it broke in the press is was almost a release for her.

It already has been through the rigors of flying around the world.

It is a distinct possibility and it is not just to the States.

last great aviation record left inside the Earth's atmosphere.

I think it's very important that the competition authorities listen to the slightly smaller companies (and) try to create a level playing field so that the consumer gets the benefit of choice and gets the benefit of competition. ? I wish Pepsi well in that and I hope that Pepsi will not behave in the same way when we come knocking on the doors of some of the big retailers that they are in.

I think the most important thing is that in the last seven days we've just had the greatest adventure of our lifetimes.

Our plans for Virgin are pretty much to leave it as it is.

Our vision of the future is a complete deregulation of everything from routes and airline access rights, all the way through to changing ownership and control regulations which would allow mergers and acquisitions,

Statistically, there is about a 6 percent chance that in any one year of the next 10 years this becomes a person-to-person problem, and we just have to hope it is not this year.

Some of the magic will be lost now that the girls are only four. It's sad to see people so close split in this way.

I was very nervous because it took a lot longer to get down the runway than we predicted.

I think Chris is an astute businessman, but he is not used to running airlines. Virgin Blue needs people with airline experience.

Wine, like life, is meant to be enjoyed. All the pomp and ceremony currently associated with wine just gets in the way of enjoying it.

Well, I'm somebody who is just living...living life, and if I get frustrated by something, then I like to try to put it right,

Virtually every part of the empire will have some form of e-commerce facility by the end of 1999, from the largest company, Virgin Atlantic, to one of the smallest, Virgin Bride.

We have always felt that a company with music at its core rather than technology could do so much better for music fans. It is so user friendly that even I could use it.

We are disappointed at the way this was dealt with at the boardroom level.

We are definitely in the market for interesting opportunities and, while David Lloyd is not a club we're likely to be interested in as a whole, we have cast a slide rule over it and would be interested in some of the clubs.

We pamper our passengers like no airline pampers them.

There are already 30 people in the world who have collected enough air miles to fly into space.

We are embarrassed to have entered the airspace without permission and relieved that they understand our position.

We are effectively in an emergency situation. But we are friends with the Chinese people, and this is a sporting event. We have no choice but to go over China, and we would be enormously grateful if they let us in.

Two people can play at that game. Cheers!

We expect the first Virgin Galactic space flight to take place in 2008, which gives our Flying Club members time to save up all their miles.

We are used to transporting millions of people ... transporting them safely. And we want to keep that impeccable record so. We know what our priorities are.

Virgin Digital UK is an exciting and innovative download service created and designed with the music fan in mind.

We have enormous sympathy for him. He has done a fantastic job. It is sad they have to come down so soon.

British Airways was doing everything they could do to put Virgin Atlantic out of business -- what's become famous here as the dirty tricks campaign, ... We felt that we needed the financial muscle to combat them. And I still had a lot to prove at Virgin Atlantic whereas we proved that we could, you know, build and run a successful record company.

At some stage, we're going to need an East Coast base. If you have to set up on the East Coast somewhere, I can't think of anywhere better than Cape Canaveral.

There's obviously ... pressure on yields because of the fuel prices.

I've taken a reduction in the price in order to get the deal done. We will reap our reward from the increased share price by holding our shares in this new combined company.

Oh, I don't like the look on his face.

Anyone would feel an enormous sense of guilt going to one of these places - and if you're in a position to do something about it you've got to make an effort.

It was the most hairy landing I've ever been through.

It's looking hopeful that the transaction will get done over the next couple of months.

In any adventure like this, there are always uncertainties.

If you are trying to do something for the first time, it's always an enormous challenge, and there is no guarantee of success. If anybody can pull it off, it will be Steve.

If you have to set up on the East Coast somewhere, I can't think of anywhere better than Cape Canaveral.