Great Throughts Treasury

"We did it [Disneyland], in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster - closed and forgotten within the first year."

"We create happiness."

"We don't make these pictures to make money. We make money so that we can make more pictures."

"We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin- a little fellow trying to do the best he could."

"We grew to our present size almost against ourselves. It was not a deliberately planned commercial venture in the sense that I sat down and said that we were going to make ourselves into a huge financial octopus. We evolved by necessity. We did not sit down and say to ourselves, 'How can we make a big pile of dough?' It just happened."

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We're always exploring and experimenting."

"We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us."

"Well, my greatest reward, I think, is that I've been able to build this wonderful organization. I've been able to enjoy good health, and the way I feel today, I feel like I can still go on being part of this thing after forty some odd years of business, and also, to have the public appreciate and accept what I've done all these years. That, that is a great reward. ... Well of course, happiness is a state of mind. You can be happy or you can be unhappy. It's just according to the way you look at things. You know. So I think happiness is contentment but it doesn't mean you have to have wealth. But all individuals are different. Some of us just wouldn't be satisfied with just carrying out a routine job and being happy. Yet I envied those people. I had a brother who I really envied because he was a mailman. But he's the one that had all the fun. He had himself a trailer, and he used to go out and go fishing, and he didn't worry about payrolls and stories and picture grosses or anything. And he was the happy one. I always said, He's the smart Disney."

"We like to have a point of view in our stories, not an obvious moral, but a worthwhile theme. ... All we are trying to do is give the public good entertainment. That is all they want."

"We're not trying to entertain the critics ... I'll take my chances with the public."

"We would hire anyone who has great talent... We're not just looking at high school graduates."

"What seems real to the mind can be as important as any material fact. We live by the spirit and the imagination as well as by our senses. Cartoon animation can give fantasy the same reality as those things we can touch and see and hear."

"Whatever we accomplish is due to the combined effort. The organization must be with you or you don't get it done... In my organization there is respect for every individual, and we all have a keen respect for the public."

"Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do."

"When guests come here they're coming because of an integrity we've established over the years. They drive hundreds of miles. I feel a responsibility to the public."

"When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, 'But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty.' I told her that was just the point - mine wouldn't be."

"When I was a kid, a book I read advised young artist to be themselves. That decided it for me. I was a corny kind of guy, so I went in for corn."

"When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."

"When we consider a project, we really study it — not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job."

"When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity."

"When we do fantasy, we must not lose sight of reality."

"Whether you say you can't or you can, you're right."

"When we opened Disneyland, a lot of people got the impressions that it was a get-rich-quick thing, but they didn't realize that behind Disneyland was this great organization that I built here at the Studio, and they all got into it and we were doing it because we loved to do it."

"When you wish upon a star..."

"When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do. And one thing it takes to accomplish something is courage."

"Whenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved."

"Whistle While You Work."

"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality. Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do."

"You are dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."

"You can't just let nature run wild."

"You don't build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them."

"You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."

"Why do we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the child's approach to live. They're people who don't give a hang what the Joneses do. You see them at Disneyland every time you go there. They are not afraid to be delighted with simple pleasures, and they have a degree of contentment with what life has brought - sometimes it isn't much, either."

"Why be a governor or senator when you can be king of Disneyland?"

"You know, the only way I've found to make these pictures is with animators. You can't seem to do it with accountants and bookkeepers."

"You'll be a poorer person all your life if you don't know some of the great stories and great poems."

"You reach a point where you don’t work for money."