Elon Musk Quotes

Being innovative is not enough; you also have to get stuff done

I think AI is our biggest existential threat

There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering

Self-driving cars are the natural extension of active safety and obviously something we should do

Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson

When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars, people said, 'Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked

Some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster

The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads

Physics is really figuring out how to discover new things that are counterintuitive, like quantum mechanics. You can't just extrapolate from the past

If you don’t push the boundaries, then you’ll never know what’s possible

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine

There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Why do you want to live? What's the point?

If you're trying to create a company, it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion

I'd rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right

Starting a company is like staring into the abyss and eating glass

I do think there is a good framework for thinking. It is physics. You know, the sort of first principles reasoning

I think it is possible for a computer to be smarter than a human and thereby to create a level of superintelligence

I think we should be cautious with AI and that we should have some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish

We're trying to have a future where we're not just alive, but we're actually excited about life

It's OK to have your eggs in one basket, as long as you control what happens to that basket

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time

I would like to see us make life multi-planetary

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

Failure is generally the best teacher

I would just question things… It would infuriate my parents. That was my nature: to question things, and it would annoy people.

The path to the CEO's office should not be through the CFO's office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design

Any product that needs a manual to work is broken

The path to the stars is not an easy one, but it is a path worth pursuing

If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it

The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur

For my part, I will never give up, and I mean never

Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up

I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future

If you need inspiration, don't do it

I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact

We’re going to make it happen or die trying

If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic

The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor

Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough

If we’re going to have any chance of sending stuff to other planets, we have to get the cost of spaceflight down by a huge amount

The first step is to try to create a future that's worth getting excited about

Optimism, pessimism, f*** that; we’re going to make it happen

Rockets are cool. There’s no getting around that

Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week

The factory is the product

We’re not going to stop until every car on the road is electric

I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment

I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact

When you want to create a company, what you're really trying to do is organize a group of people to create a product or service

My proceeds from the PayPal acquisition were $180 million. I put $100 million in SpaceX, $70 million in Tesla, and $10 million in SolarCity. I had to borrow money for rent

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment

Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster

Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week

Great companies are built on great products

The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur

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

The reality is that very few people care about what computers can do; they just care about what they can do with computers

Being an entrepreneur is like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death

The reality is that very few people care about what computers can do; they just care about what they can do with computers

I always have optimism, but I’m realistic. It was not with the expectation of great success that I started Tesla or SpaceX

We're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor

You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve

We're not going to stop until every car on the road is electric

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor

You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great, and that's what being a spacefaring civilization is all about

If you’re co-founder or CEO, you have to do all kinds of tasks you might not want to do. If you don’t do your chores, the company won’t succeed. No task is too menial

I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary

Great companies are built on great products

If you need inspiration, don’t do it

My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail

The key to making things affordable is design and technology improvements, as well as scale

We’re going to Mars to have a future where we’re a spacefaring civilization and a multi-planet species

Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up

I think there are lessons to be learned from history. Looking at the rise and fall of civilizations, we see that it's not just about technology, it's also about values

I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems... it's got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time

You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve

Trying to read a few pages of a book every day — that’s what I would recommend. Just build in continuous improvement

Working 100 hours a week means you achieve in four months what it takes others a year to do

We’re going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I’m hell-bent on making it work

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor

I could either watch it happen or be a part of it

I would sell my soul to the devil if it meant changing the world for the better

Patents are for the weak

You shouldn’t do things differently just because they’re different. They need to be… better

Patents are for the weak

I think that’s the best single piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor

When something is sufficiently important, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor

We will not stop until the job is done

Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson

People work better when they know what the goal is and why. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working

Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold

I'd like to see us go beyond the Moon and Mars, to explore the rest of the solar system

I think it’s possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary

The reality is, if you’re not progressing, you’re regressing

I say something, and then it usually happens

Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up

You shouldn’t do things differently just because they’re different. They need to be... better

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself

I would like to see us go beyond the moon and Mars, to explore the entire solar system

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor

One of the biggest problems with the so-called Silicon Valley MBA types is that they want to outsource everything

Mars is the only place in the solar system where it’s possible for life to become multi-planetary

The single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself

Take risks now. Do something bold. You won’t regret it

When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars, people said, 'Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked

Patents are for the weak

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself

You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that's wrong with it and fix it

Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough

I say something, and then it usually happens

My motivation for all my companies has been to be involved in something that I thought would have a significant impact on the world

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor

The point of doing this is to just inspire people to think that one day they will be able to travel to the stars

You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great—and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about

You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that's wrong with it and fix it

Some people dream of success, while other people get up every morning and make it happen

I think it's possible for people to have a good life while also doing something meaningful

You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that's wrong with it and fix it. Seek negative feedback, particularly from friends

When I was in college, I wanted to be involved in things that would change the world

I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that

A company is a group of people gathered together to create a product or service. And it’s only as good as its people and how excited they are about creating

My proceeds from the PayPal acquisition were $180 million. I put $100 million in SpaceX, $70m in Tesla, and $10m in Solar City. I had to borrow money for rent

A company is a group of people gathered together to create a product or service. And it’s only as good as its people and how excited they are about creating

Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive, and determination of the people behind it as the product they sell

I could either watch it happen or be a part of it

You want to have a future where you’re expecting things to be better, not one where you’re expecting things to be worse

The factory is the product

It is remarkable how many smart people there are that think that data centers are giant computers, but actually they are mostly computers, not a giant computer

I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary

Work like hell. I mean, you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. This improves the odds of success

If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not