A collection of quotes by Elon Musk on motivation, business, communication, important, passion, life, advice, learning, virtue, technology, space and future.
159 Inspiring Quotes By Elon Musk That Prove His Sagacity
Elon Musk is a renowned Canadian-American business magnate, investor, and engineer. He is known to be the second entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley to establish three companies having a capital of more than $1 billion each. He has always shown interest in products that have a potential to change the world. He has a huge interest in space and owns a company called ‘SpaceX’ which manufactures satellites and launch vehicles and also has NASA on their client list. After his graduation, he collaborated with his brother to establish a software company ‘Zip2’ which he sold off to Compaq at a huge price in a short span of time. His next and first most notable venture was ‘PayPal’ which opened the gates of internet banking to the world. His next notable venture was the Tesla Motors which contributes significantly to the market of racing cars. Through this company, Musk aimed at redefining Electric cars and came up with cars which were super efficient working on a battery, unlike other general cars. Here are some gems of wisdom that have been uttered by the business giant which have become famous as his quotes and are quoted extensively. Read through the thoughts and quotes by Elon Musk that will give you a peek into such an innovative brain.
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.
In the case of Apple, they did originally do production internally, but then along came unbelievably good outsourced manufacturing from companies like Foxconn. We don't have that in the rocket business. There's no Foxconn in the rocket business.
SpaceX has the potential of saving the U.S. government $1 billion a year. We are opposed to creating an entrenched monopoly with no realistic means for anyone to compete.
Elon Musk
I think it would be great to be born on Earth and die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact.
The lessons of history would suggest that civilisations move in cycles. You can track that back quite far - the Babylonians, the Sumerians, followed by the Egyptians, the Romans, China. We're obviously in a very upward cycle right now, and hopefully that remains the case. But it may not.
The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I'm not trying to be anyone's savior. I'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad.
I think Tesla will most likely develop its own autopilot system for the car, as I think it should be camera-based, not Lidar-based. However, it is also possible that we do something jointly with Google.
It is theoretically possible to warp spacetime itself, so you're not actually moving faster than the speed of light, but it's actually space that's moving.
Elon Musk
If you think back to the beginning of cell phones, laptops or really any new technology, it's always expensive.
The U.S. automotive industry has been selling cars the same way for over 100 years, and there are many laws in place to govern exactly how that is to be accomplished.
Elon Musk
There's nothing - I've bought everything I want. I don't like yachts or anything; you know, I'm not a yacht person, and I've got pretty much the nicest plane I'd want to have.
If you look at our current technology level, something strange has to happen to civilisations, and I mean strange in a bad way. And it could be that there are a whole lot of dead, one-planet civilisations.
We could definitely make a flying car - but that's not the hard part. The hard part is, how do you make a flying car that's super safe and quiet? Because if it's a howler, you're going to make people very unhappy.
From an evolutionary standpoint, human consciousness has not been around very long. A little light just went on after four and a half billion years. How often does that happen? Maybe it is quite rare.
Elon Musk
Here in the West, people often don't like listening to their leaders, even if they are right.
Facebook is quite entrenched and has a network effect. It's hard to break into a network once it's formed.
Elon Musk
Government isn't that good at rapid advancement of technology. It tends to be better at funding basic research. To have things take off, you've got to have commercial companies do it.
Elon Musk
The rumours of the demise of the U.S. manufacturing industry are greatly exaggerated.
Elon Musk
The United States is definitely ahead in culture of innovation. If someone wants to accomplish great things, there is no better place than the U.S.
I think a lot of the American people feel more than a little disappointed that the high-water mark for human exploration was 1969. The dream of human space travel has almost died for a lot of people.
I'm personally a moderate and a registered independent, so I'm not strongly Democratic or strongly Republican.
Elon Musk
I think most of the important stuff on the Internet has been built. There will be continued innovation, for sure, but the great problems of the Internet have essentially been solved.
Even if producing CO2 was good for the environment, given that we're going to run out of hydrocarbons, we need to find some sustainable means of operating.
Trying to read our DNA is like trying to understand software code - with only 90% of the code riddled with errors. It's very difficult in that case to understand and predict what that software code is going to do.
My vision is for a fully reusable rocket transport system between Earth and Mars that is able to re-fuel on Mars - this is very important - so you don't have to carry the return fuel when you go there.
Silicon Valley has some of the smartest engineers and technology business people in the world.
Elon Musk
A battery by definition is a collection of cells. So the cell is a little can of chemicals. And the challenge is taking a very high-energy cell, and a large number of them, and combining them safely into a large battery.
Elon Musk
I've actually made a prediction that within 30 years a majority of new cars made in the United States will be electric. And I don't mean hybrid, I mean fully electric.
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.
Silicon Valley has evolved a critical mass of engineers and venture capitalists and all the support structure - the law firms, the real estate, all that - that are all actually geared toward being accepting of startups.
Elon Musk
In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.
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.
Elon Musk
I don't spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.
Boeing just took $20 billion and 10 years to improve the efficiency of their planes by 10 percent. That's pretty lame. I have a design in mind for a vertical liftoff supersonic jet that would be a really big improvement.
You need to live in a dome initially, but over time you could terraform Mars to look like Earth and eventually walk around outside without anything on... So it's a fixer-upper of a planet.
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.
Elon Musk
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.
Elon Musk
Obviously Tesla is about helping solve the consumption of energy in a sustainable manner, but you need the production of energy in a sustainable manner.
