I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2，300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast， and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles -- something that simply couldn't exist in the physical world -- was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old， and I'd been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most startups don't， and I wasn't sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy， I'd been a garage inventor. I'd invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires， a solar cooker that didn't work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil， baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I'd always wanted to be an inventor， and she wanted me to follow my passion.

最好的赞美是当人们告诉我，我的音乐帮助他们度过了艰难时期。

Never underestimate the power of small, consistent actions to drive large-scale change.

Success only comes through preparation.

The only time you should look down on someone is when you're helping them up.

The greatest discoveries often come from unexpected places.

失败是有趣的——它是进步的一部分。你永远不会从成功中学到东西，但你会从失败中学到东西。