Elon Musk
A visionary engineer and entrepreneur who founded SpaceX, co-founded Tesla, Inc., and has made significant contributions to electric vehicles and space exploration.
Most quoted
"If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would be considered magic—being able to talk to people instantly across vast distances, to see pictures and hear sounds from anywhere, to fly, to access immense amounts of information from a small device. These are things that would have been considered magic a short time ago."
— from TED Talk, 2017
"If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic - being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago."
— from TED Talk
"I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better. I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself."
— from Interview with Kevin Rose, 2013
All quotes by Elon Musk (280)
The path to the future is not a straight line. It's a winding road.
I think the internet is the closest thing to a global consciousness.
The future of humanity is fundamentally going to be shaped by two things: whether we become a multi-planet species and the development of artificial intelligence.
We should be concerned about the concentration of power in AI. It's a very dangerous thing.
We're going to have to figure out how to integrate with AI, or we're going to be left behind.
Don't be afraid of new ideas. Be afraid of old ideas.
The most important thing is to have a good product.
The problem is that at a lot of big companies, the incentive structure is such that people are rewarded for not failing, rather than for succeeding.
I'm interested in things that change the world or that affect the future and wondrous, new technology, and things that open up a new era for humanity.
The purpose of Tesla is to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy.
SpaceX's goal is to make humanity a multi-planet species.
I think it's important to have a compelling future. If you don't have a compelling future, you're not going to be excited about it.
The future is not something that happens to us. It's something we create.
The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.
It's very important to like the people you work with, otherwise life and work is just too short.
You shouldn't do things differently just because they're different. They need to be better.
I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy.
We're going to have to make sure that we're not creating a super-intelligent AI that is going to destroy humanity.
I would like to be involved in things that change the world.
My proceeds from PayPal were $180 million. I put $100 million into SpaceX, $70 million into Tesla, and $10 million into SolarCity. I had to borrow money for rent.