Elon Musk Quotes

“Do not optimize a thing that should not exist.”

“If you need inspiring words, don't do it.”

“Illiteracy is the wellspring of poverty.”

“Many people will panic to find a charger before their phone dies, but won't panic to find a plan before their dream dies.”

“The moment the person leading a company thinks numbers have value in themselves, the company’s done. The moment the CFO becomes CEO—it’s done. Game over.”

“A lot of the countries that have been around for a long time are really trapped in their own history.”

“Don’t be afraid of new arenas.”

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

“Find a way or make a way to get something done.”

“Founders should run the company for as long as they reasonably can. You should only consider passing over the reins to somebody as good or better than you are at creating great products.”

“Given the choice, I’d rather stick a fork in my hand than write about my personal life.”

“Great companies are built on great products.”

“I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.”

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

“I think the United States is more open to new ideas than any country in the world. And I think becomes somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy in that because the United States is open to new ideas, it attracted people from the world who had new ideas.”

“I wanted to be involved in something that would matter to the world and be important to the future of humanity.”

“I’m a bigger fan of Edison than Tesla because Edison brought his stuff to the market and made those inventions accessible to the world, whereas Tesla didn’t really do that.”

“If you look at the pace of battery improvement, it is clear that it is inevitable. The future will be entirely electric.”

“It is our destiny to go beyond our planet and develop sustainable environments elsewhere.”

“It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”

“It’s very important to like the people you work with, otherwise life and your job is gonna be quite miserable.”

“People work better when they know what the goal is and why.”

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

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

“Sometimes the customer doesn’t actually know what they need.”

“Sooner or later we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball or go extinct.”

“The lens of history is a good way to filter more versus less important things.”

“The U.S. is where great things are possible.”

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

“When you try new things, you try this idea, that idea… well, a large number of them are not gonna work… and that has to be ok. If every time somebody comes up with an idea it has to be successful, you’re not gonna get people coming up with ideas.”