elon musk biography book quotes

8 major takeaways from the explosive new book about Elon Musk that lifts the lid on the world's richest person

• Walter Isaacson's biography on Elon Musk hit shelves last Tuesday.
• The author trailed the Musk for about three years and provides a peek into the billionaire's mind.
• The book details everything from Musk's relationship with his father to his "hardcore" work ethic and "demon mode."

Elon Musk has dominated headlines for years, but a new book proves there is still plenty to learn about the world's richest man.

After shadowing Musk for three years, Walter Isaacson provided a peek behind the curtain into the life of one of the most powerful men in the world in his biography on the Tesla CEO.

The book hit shelves on September 12 and it had some eye-popping details about the billionaire — from big reveals on his relationship with Ukraine and the birth of his eleventh child to details on Musk's hardcore work ethic and emotional swings.

Here are eight things we learned from the biography.

Musk's moods vary a lot, and those close to him fear his 'demon mode.'

The book explains how Musk's moods can swing wildly .

"He has numerous minds and many fairly distinct personalities," Grimes told Isaacson. "He moves between them at a very rapid pace. You just feel the air in the room change, and suddenly the whole situation is just transferred over to his other state."

Isaacson said that throughout his time with Musk, he'd also witnessed the billionaire's emotional volatility, saying he'd switch between "light and dark, intense and goofy, detached and emotional."

"When we hang out, I make sure I'm with the right Elon," Grimes said. "There are guys in that head who don't like me, and I don't like them." These vary from the version of him "who's down for Burning Man and will sleep on a couch, eat canned soup, and be chill" and his so-called "demon mode" — "when he goes dark and retreats inside the storm in his brain."

During these periods, Musk is likely to unleash his rage on employees or order up a work surge, according to Isaacson. Grimes said despite the darkness associated with "demon mode," it's also the mode where he "gets shit done."

Elon Musk's relationship with his father massively affected his personality and outlook on the world.

One character who appears frequently throughout the book is Elon Musk's father, Errol Musk.

The biography is peppered with descriptions of incidents where Elon Musk claims his father bullied and demeaned him ( something Errol Musk has denied ), as well as comments from Elon Musk's former girlfriends and wives about how Errol Musk ultimately influenced his son's personality and outlook on the world.

After his parents divorced, Elon Musk originally lived with his mother before spending about seven years living with his father in Pretoria from the age of 10.

"It turned out to be a really bad idea," Elon Musk told Isaacson. "I didn't yet how how horrible he was."

His younger brother Kimbal Musk told Isaacson that their father had "zero compassion" and often "went ballistic."

"It was mental torture," Elon Musk told Isaacson. "He sure knew how to make anything terrible."

Elon Musk's mother, Maye Musk , said there was a fear her son "might become his father."

Both Elon and Kimbal Musk no longer speak to their father, Isaacson wrote.

But the years that he spent with his father have somewhat shaped Elon Musk's personality, according to the book. 

"I think he got conditioned in childhood that life is pain," Grimes, Elon Musk's former girlfriend, told Isaacson. She also noted that because of how his father brought him up, Musk sometimes lets himself be treated badly and "associates love with being mean or abusive."  

Justine Musk , Elon Musk's first wife, told Isaacson said that during their arguments, Elon would belittle and insult her, calling her a "moron," an "idiot," or "stupid and crazy."

"When I spent some time with Errol, I realized that's where he'd gotten the vocabulary," Justine Musk told Isaacson. 

Ex-wife Talulah Riley also told Isaacson that Errol Musk's treatment of his son "had a profound effect on how he operates."

"Inside the man, he's still there as a child, a child standing in front of his dad ," she said.

Musk's 'hardcore' work ethic has always been a part of him.

Musk is well known for his "hardcore" work mindset , which in some cases involved sleeping and eating in the office. His late-night habits seem to stem from his childhood, when he would stay up until 6 a.m. reading, Isaacson wrote.

While he worked at Zip2, his first business, Musk and his brother slept in the office, showered at the YMCA, and mainly ate at Jack in the Box, the book said. One early Zip2 employee told Isaacson that he even had to tell Musk to go home and shower before customer meetings.

"At Zip2 and every subsequent company, he drove himself relentlessly all day and through much of the night, without vacations, and he expected others to do the same," Isaacson wrote. "His only indulgence was allowing breaks for intense video-game binges."

Musk has applied the same intensity to other aspects of his life, too, including learning to fly planes. "I tend to do things very intensely," he told Isaacson.

Musk expects his employees to display the same workaholic nature. At banking company X.com, which later became PayPal following a merger, he told staff that the site would launch to the public on Thanksgiving weekend and "prowled the office each day, including Thanksgiving, in a nervous and nervous-making frenzy and slept under his desk most nights," Isaacson wrote.

After buying Twitter more than two decades later, he told its staff to commit to an "extremely hardcore" work schedule with "long hours at a high intensity" if they wanted to keep their jobs.

He's been difficult to work with from the start.

Horror stories about working with Elon Musk are hardly a new phenomenon — from quickly laying off over half of Twitter's workforce to forcing some Tesla workers to work through Thanksgiving — working at one of his companies has become the stuff of urban legends. And it turns out tensions were often near a boiling point, even at Musk's first startup.

Musk's brother once "tore off a hunk of flesh" from Musk's hand while the brothers wrestled on the floor in Zip2 's office back in the 90s, according to Isaacson. The biographer said the two men would wrestle during periods of "intense stress."

Similarly, Musk's college dorm-mate quit working at Zip2 just six weeks after starting at the company because he couldn't handle working with Musk, according to the book.

"I knew I could either be working with him or be his friend, but not both," Musk's longtime friend and former dorm-mate, Navaid Farooq, told Isaacson.

Musk later explained the reasoning behind his intensity after he chewed out a SpaceX worker who had lost his child the week prior.

"I give people hardcore feedback, mostly accurate, and I try not to to do it in a way that's ad hominem," Musk told Isaacson. "I try to criticize the action, not the person. We all make mistakes. What matters is whether a person has a good feedback loop, can seek criticism from others, and can improve. Physics does not care about feelings. It cares about whether you got the rocket right."

Musk reacts physically to stress but it also motivates him. He can't handle peace.

During stressful periods at work and in his personal life, Musk would stay awake at night and vomit, Isaacson wrote.

The biographer said that at one point Musk's stomach pain had a doctor checking for appendicitis. 

In 2008 when Tesla was facing the potential of bankruptcy, Musk's wife at the time, Talulah Riley, told Isaacson she worried the stress would cause Musk to have a heart attack.

"He was having night terrors and just screaming in his sleep and clawing at me," she said. "It would go to his gut, and he would be screaming and retching. I would stand by the toilet and hold his head."

Musk's ex-girlfriend Grimes says she recalls similarly sleepless nights during her relationship with the billionaire.

Musk appears to seek out these periods of high stress, according to some. 

"You don't have to be in a state of war at all times," Shivon Zilis, the mother of two of Musk's children and a director at Neuralink, told Musk when he was gearing up to buy Twitter. "Or is it that you find greater comfort when you're in periods of war?" 

Musk told Zilis it's one of his "default settings."

"I guess I've always wanted to push my chips back on the table or play the next level of the game."

Though, Musk has admitted to Isaacson his intensity has taken a toll on him physically.

"From 2007 onwards, until maybe last year, it's been nonstop pain. There's a gun to your head, make Tesla work, pull a rabbit out of your hat, then pull another rabbit out of the hat," Musk told Isaacson in 2021.

"You can't be in a constant fight for survival, always in adrenaline mode, and not have it hurt you. But there's something else I've found this year. It's that fighting to survive keeps you going for quite a while. When you are no longer in a survive-or-die mode, it's not that easy to get motivated every day," he added.

Musk can be a difficult person to date.

Isaacson interviewed many of the women Musk used to date or be married to. It becomes clear that Musk can be a difficult person to date because of a range of factors, including his laser focus on his businesses and his lack of empathy and social awareness.

"Elon and I were used to having big arguments in public," Justine Musk told Isaacson. "I don't think you can be in a relationship with Elon and not argue."

Musk postponed his honeymoon with Justine by months so that he could sort out X.com's merger with PayPal , and they had to cut it short amid turmoil at the company.

Justine told Isaacson that Elon Musk told her to dye her hair blonder and that she felt like she was being turned into a "trophy wife."

"I met him when he didn't have much at all," she told Isaacson. "The accumulation of wealth and fame changed the dynamic."

"The strong will and emotional distance that makes him difficult as a husband may be reasons for his success in running a business," she added.

Meanwhile, his emotional volatility and inability to understand other people's emotions at times can be hard to deal with, Grimes told Isaacson.

Isaacson wrote that Musk sent a picture of his then-girlfriend Grimes having a C-section when she had X to their friends and family, including her father and brothers. Grimes said he was "clueless" about why she'd be upset about it.

But he has a tender side too.

Though the book describes Musk's volatile relationships with many people, including relatives, friends, partners, and business associates, it also details how he can be tender at times. In particular, Isaacson paints a picture of Musk as a doting father to X AE A-XII, also known as "baby X," his first child with Grimes .

Isaacson wrote that X "had an otherworldly sweetness that calmed and beguiled Musk, who craved his presence. He took X everywhere."

Musk also moved in with his father aged 10 because he didn't want him to be lonely, Isaacson wrote. Musk's cousin Peter Rive told Isaacson that playing "Dungeons and Dragons" together as a child brought out the "incredibly patient" and "beautiful" parts of Musk's personality.

When a close friend of Musk's ex-wife Talulah Riley died in 2021, he flew over to England to be with her, "and he just made me laugh instead of cry," she told Isaacson.

Musk's politics are beginning to echo his father's.

While Musk has cut off communication with his father, Errol Musk, Isaacson said the billionaire's political stance is beginning to mimic his father's.

Isaacson said Errol's sons were sometimes off-put by their father's political rants. For example in 2022, Errol sent Musk an email in which he called the COVID-19 pandemic "a lie" and dubbed President Joe Biden a '"freak, criminal, pedophile president' who was out to destroy everything that the US stood for, 'including you,'" Isaacson wrote.

The biographer said Musk had begun to show a similar propensity which was in part triggered by his daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson 's decision to cut ties with him. Isaacson said that Musk blamed the disconnect on the "woke mind virus."

Over the past few years Musk has gone from from supporting the Democratic party to publicly dissing President Joe Biden, reposting anti-transgender content on X, and promoting conspiracy theories.

"Musk's tweet showed his growing tendency (like his father) to read wacky fake-news sites purveying conspiracy theories, a problem that Twitter had writ at large," Isaacson wrote of Musk's decision to post about a conspiracy theory related to the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband.

And, like his father, Musk's politics have been met with distaste from much of his family.

"It's not okay," Kimbal Musk told his brother after he tweeted "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci." "It's not funny. You can't do that shit."

The biography is in stores now.

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(Photo by CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

By Christine Ruggeri Leaders Staff

Christine Ruggeri

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Christine Ruggeri is a business and personal growth writer for Leaders Media. Previously, she worked as a senior content writer...

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Aug 14, 2023

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Unveiling the Mind of Elon Musk: 55 Quotes That Define His Vision and Ambition

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Elon Musk is an entrepreneur, inventor, engineer and business magnate known for his involvement in several high-profile technology companies and most recently, for his purchase of social media platform Twitter. He was named TIME’s “Person of the Year” in 2021 and has an estimated net worth of around $240 billion as of July 2023.

Musk is the CEO and lead designer of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc., CEO of Neuralink, CEO of Twitter, and founder of The Boring Company. He has gained popularity primarily due to his ambitious vision and achievements in the fields of electric vehicles, space exploration, and renewable energy. 

His charismatic personality, active presence on social media, and penchant for making bold and sometimes controversial statements have also contributed to his popularity. He has gained a large following of fans and supporters who are inspired by his vision for the future and his relentless pursuit of technological advancements.

Below, you’ll find 55 quotes by Elon Musk that display his ideas on entrepreneurship, business management, technology and innovation, environmental sustainability, and more. 

• SpaceX: Musk founded SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) in 2002 to reduce space transportation costs and make space exploration more accessible. SpaceX has made significant advancements in reusable rocket technology and has successfully launched numerous missions to the International Space Station (ISS). In 2020, it became the first private company to send humans to space. In July 2023, SpaceX set a new record with more than 4,000 Starlink satellites in orbit around Earth. 
• Tesla, Inc.: Musk played a crucial role in the success of Tesla since he became heavily involved in 2004. An electric vehicle and clean energy company. Tesla produced innovative electric cars, such as the Tesla Roadster, Model S, Model 3, and Model Y, under his leadership. Tesla revolutionized the automotive industry and popularized sustainable transportation.
• Neuralink: In 2016, Musk founded Neuralink , a neurotechnology company focused on developing implantable brain-machine interface devices. The company aims to enhance human capabilities and potentially address neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and paralysis. 
• Hyperloop and The Boring Company: Musk proposed the concept of the Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system, and later founded The Boring Company to develop tunneling technology in 2017. Projects by The Boring Company aim to alleviate traffic congestion and improve transportation efficiency. However, only one of the seven proposed projects has been completed so far, with minimal success. 
• Twitter: After years of interest, Musk acquired Twitter in 2022. Since his acquisition, he has made a series of controversial changes to the social media platform, including implementing a subscription service for “blue-checks” and reinstating individuals who had been banned for violating the company’s policies, including Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Ye (formerly known as Kayne West). 
• Mars Colonization: Musk has expressed a long-term vision of establishing a human settlement on Mars. He has outlined plans for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, which is intended to transport humans and cargo to Mars. Musk’s ambition and dedication to making life multiplanetary have garnered significant attention.

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

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

3. “Pay attention to negative feedback, and solicit it, particularly from friends.”

4. “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.” 

5. “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.” 

6. “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.”

7. “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. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.” 

8. “Great companies are built on great products.”

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

10. “There are really two things that have to occur in order for a new technology to be affordable to the mass market. One is you need economies of scale. The other is you need to iterate on the design. You need to go through a few versions.” 

11. “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.”

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

13. “The key to making things affordable is design and technology improvements as well as scale.”

14. “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.”

15. “Over time, I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.”

16. “All orgs developing advanced AI should be regulated, including Tesla.”

17. “If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing.” 

18. “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.” 

19. “If humanity doesn’t land on Mars in my lifetime, I would be very disappointed.” 

20. “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.” 

21. “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.”

22. “I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”

23. “Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.”

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

25. “The duty of a leader is to serve their people, not for the people to serve them.”

26. “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.”

27. “Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.” 

28. “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.”

29. “Entrepreneurship is like eating glass and walking on hot coals at the same time.”

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

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

32. “We should be much more worried about population collapse.”

33. “We’re running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere . . . can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.” 

34. “Man has the power to act as his own destroyer—and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.” 

35. “The reality is gas prices should be much more expensive than they are because we’re not incorporating the true damage to the environment and the hidden costs of mining oil and transporting it to the U.S.”

36. “The reason we should do a carbon tax is because it’s the right thing to do. It’s economics 101, elementary stuff.” 

37. “To make an embarrassing admission, I like video games. That’s what got me into software engineering when I was a kid. I wanted to make money so I could buy a better computer to play better video games—nothing like saving the world.”

38. “If I’m not in love, if I’m not with a long-term companion, I cannot be happy.”

39. “I’d like to dial it back 5% or 10% and try to have a vacation that’s not just email with a view.”

40. “If anyone has a vested interest in space solar power, it would have to be me.”

41. “I was born in Africa. I came to California because it’s really where new technologies can be brought to fruition, and I don’t see a viable competitor.” 

42. “I usually describe myself as an engineer; that’s basically what I’ve been doing since I was a kid.”

43. “I’m personally a moderate and a registered independent, so I’m not strongly Democratic or strongly Republican.”

44. “To be clear, I support the left half of the Republican Party and the right half of the Democratic Party.”

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

47. “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”

48. “Land on Mars, a round-trip ticket—half a million dollars. It can be done.” 

49. “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.”

50. “I’m against export controls in general. I think it’s not a good way to address a trade imbalance.” (Referring to relations between China and the U.S.)

51. “My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.” (Referring to Twitter)

52. “If I acquire Twitter and something goes wrong, it’s my fault, 100%. I think there will be quite a few errors.”

53. “I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.”

54. “If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.” 

55. “Creating a self-sustaining city on Mars is the ultimate insurance policy for humanity’s survival.”

Throughout his career, Elon Musk has proven that he’s constantly questioning what humans are capable of achieving, and working to find solutions. He hasn’t always been successful, and some of his ideas are controversial, but Musk continues to set his sights on projects that seem nearly impossible.

Based on his work with Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is a changemaker who is driven by innovation and achieving large-scale goals. Although he is not the perfect example of a strong leader, he has demonstrated a talent for innovation. 

Elon Musk exhibits the following leadership traits:

• Visionary: Known for his ambitious and forward-thinking vision, Musk sets audacious goals and has a clear sense of where he wants to take his companies and industries. With SpaceX, for example, he developed groundbreaking technologies, such as the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, and achieved milestones like the first privately-funded rocket to reach orbit and the first commercial vehicle to visit the International Space Station. 
• Innovation and Disruption: Musk has demonstrated the ability to disrupt industries through innovative technologies. The development of Tesla’s electric vehicles, for example, disrupted the automotive industry by popularizing sustainable transportation and pushing the boundaries of electric vehicle technology.
• Risk-taking: Musk isn’t afraid to take risks and pursue ventures that others might consider too risky or controversial. He demonstrated risk-taking through his commitment to building Gigafactories and investing heavily in Tesla’s production capacity, defying conventional wisdom and challenging established automakers, ultimately leading to Tesla’s success and transformation of the electric vehicle market.
• Long-Term Thinking: Musk is known for his long-term thinking and focus on addressing issues with sustainable solutions. His long-term thinking is evident in his pursuit of sustainable energy solutions, as demonstrated by his commitment to developing and popularizing electric vehicles with Tesla, and his investments in renewable energy initiatives like SolarCity, aiming to create a sustainable future for generations to come.
• Disruptive Leadership Style: His leadership style is often described as disruptive because he challenges conventional thinking, encourages innovation, and is not afraid to shake up established industries and practices. This is exemplified by SpaceX, which has challenged traditional space industry norms by successfully developing reusable rocket technology, lowering the cost of space travel, and pioneering the concept of commercial space exploration.

To learn more about his qualities as an entrepreneur, read this article next: 

4 Ways to Apply Elon Musk’s Leadership Style

Leaders Media has established sourcing guidelines and relies on relevant, and credible sources for the data, facts, and expert insights and analysis we reference. You can learn more about our mission, ethics, and how we cite sources in our editorial policy .

• Ball, M. (2021, December 13). Elon Musk is Time’s 2021 Person of the Year . Time. https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2021-elon-musk/
• The Real-Time Billionaires List . (n.d.). Forbes. Retrieved July 13, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#7d69d71c3d78
• SpaceX . (n.d.). SpaceX. https://www.spacex.com/  
• Krietzberg, I. (2023, July 10). WATCH: Elon Musk’s SpaceX sets a giant new record. TheStreet . https://www.thestreet.com/technology/watch-elon-musks-spacex-sets-a-giant-new-record  
• Electric Cars, solar & clean Energy | Tesla . (n.d.). Tesla. https://www.tesla.com/  
• Play Studio. (n.d.). Neuralink . Neuralink. https://neuralink.com/  
• The boring company . (n.d.). The Boring Company. https://www.boringcompany.com/  
• Conger, K., & Hirsch, L. (2022, October 28). Elon Musk completes $44 billion deal to own Twitter. The New York Times . https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/technology/elon-musk-twitter-deal-complete.html  
• Torchinsky, R. (2022, March 17). Elon Musk hints at a crewed mission to Mars in 2029. NPR . https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/1087167893/elon-musk-mars-2029  
• SpaceX . (n.d.-b). SpaceX. https://www.spacex.com/launches/  
• Furr, N. (2023, April 4). Lessons from Tesla’s Approach to Innovation . Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/02/lessons-from-teslas-approach-to-innovation  
• Baldwin, R. (2022, October 11). What you need to know about Tesla’s gigafactories. Capital One Auto Navigator . https://www.capitalone.com/cars/learn/finding-the-right-car/what-you-need-to-know-about-teslas-gigafactories/1810  
• Hamilton, I. A. (2022, May 13). How Elon Musk transformed his cousins’ solar panel company into Tesla Energy, which has faced lawsuits from angry shareholders and consumers. Business Insider . https://www.businessinsider.com/solarcity-tesla-energy-beleaguered-history-elon-musk-2021-7  
• Jane Marsh – What SpaceX Teaches Us About Renewable Energy Adoption – Renewable Energy Magazine, at the heart of clean energy journalism. (2021, July 26). Jane Marsh – What SpaceX Teaches Us About Renewable Energy Adoption – Renewable Energy Magazine, at the heart of clean energy journalism . Renewable Energy Magazine, at the Heart of Clean Energy Journalism. https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/jane-marsh/what-spacex-teaches-us-about-renewable-energy-20210726  

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The 22 most memorable quotes from the new Elon Musk book, ranked

For anyone interested in technology, entrepreneurship or the price of greatness, Ashlee Vance’s new book, “ Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future ,” is a tremendous look into arguably the world’s most important entrepreneur.

Vance paints an unforgettable picture of Musk’s unique personality, insatiable drive and ability to thrive through hardship. The book bursts with telling anecdotes and quotes that illuminate who Musk is. Here are some that stood out:

1. “I do think of him as the Terminator. He locks his gaze on to something and says, ‘It shall be mine.’ Bit by bit, he won me over.” — Justine Musk, Elon’s ex-wife

2. “We’re all hanging out in this cabana at the Hard Rock Cafe, and Elon is there reading some obscure Soviet rocket manual that was all moldy and looked like it had been bought on eBay.” — Kevin Hartz, an early PayPal investor, describing an outing in Las Vegas that was intended as a time to celebrate the company’s success.

3. “He’s kind of homeless, which I think is sort of funny. He’ll e-mail and say, ‘I don’t know where to stay tonight. Can I come over?’ I haven’t given him a key or anything yet.” — Google chief executive Larry Page on Elon Musk, who owns a home in Los Angeles but doesn’t have a place in Silicon Valley, which he visits weekly for his work at Tesla.

4. “Elon said ‘I will spend my last dollar on these companies. If we have to move into Justine’s parents’ basement, we’ll do it.’ ” — Antonio Gracias recalling a dinner with Musk during the 2008 financial crisis.

[ Why shades of Asperger’s Syndrome are the secret to building a great tech company ]

5. “I believe the second sentence out of his mouth was, ‘I think a lot about electric cars.’ And then he turned to me and said, ‘Do you think about electric cars?’ ” — Christie Nicholson, the daughter of an adviser to Elon Musk, recalling first meeting Musk at a party. As a college student he was already hooked on electric cars.

6. “My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.” — Elon Musk explaining himself to a potential investor.

Update, May 12: Since publication of this article Musk has said he has never called himself a samurai .

7. “That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We’re changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t.” — an anonymous Tesla employee recalling an e-mail from Musk after missing an event to witness the birth of his child.

Update, May 12: Musk has since called this inaccurate and said he would never tell someone to miss a child’s birth for a meeting.

8. “That’s my lesson for taking a vacation: vacation will kill you.” — Elon Musk, who nearly died in 2000 from a malaria infection following a trip to Brazil and South Africa.

9. “I would like to allocate more time to dating, though. I need to find a girlfriend. That’s why I need to carve out just a little more time. I think maybe even another five to 10 — how much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours? That’s kind of the minimum? I don’t know.” — Elon Musk

10. “Like why did you go steal Tesla’s E? Like you’re some sort of fascist army marching across the alphabet, some sort of Sesame Street robber?” — Elon Musk, recalling his complaint to Ford’s then chief executive Alan Mulally, about blocking Tesla from using the name Model E.

11. “They got my best [expletive] friend to lure me out of hiding so they could beat me up. And that [expletive] hurt.  For some reason they decided that I was it, and they were going to go after me nonstop. That’s what made growing up difficult. For a number of years there was no respite. You get chased around by gangs at school who tried to beat the [expletive] out of me, and then I’d come home, and it would just be awful there as well.” — Elon Musk, who said he was hospitalized after one beating and couldn’t return to school for a week. He was living with his father, who was said to delight in being hard on his sons.

[ Crazy good: How mental illnesses help entrepreneurs thrive ]

12. “He goes into his brain, and then you just see he is in another world. He still does that. Now I just leave him be because I know he is designing a new rocket or something.” — Elon Musk’s mother describing how as a child Elon sometimes seemed to drift off into trances. He wouldn’t respond when spoken to and would have a distant look in his eyes. Musk’s parents and physicians thought maybe he was deaf and removed his adenoid glands thinking that would improve his hearing. It made no difference.

13. “Everybody around here has slides in their lobbies. I’m actually wondering about putting in a roller coaster — like a functional roller coaster at the factory in Fremont. You’d get in, and it would take you around [the] factory but also up and down. Who else has a roller coaster? … It would probably be really expensive, but I like the idea of it.” — Elon Musk

14. “I wanted him to meet me behind security so he couldn’t pack a gun.” — Jim Cantrell, describing his first meeting with Elon Musk. Cantrell was once accused of espionage by Russians, so he was fearful when he received a call from a stranger with an accent asking to help him with a space program. They met in an airport, hit it off, and would later travel to Russia hoping to buy rockets.

15. “I would tell those people they will get to see their families a lot when we go bankrupt.” — Ryan Popple recalling Musk’s retort when an employee complained in Tesla’s early days that they were working too hard.

16. “One night he told me, ‘If there was a way that I could not eat, so I could work more, I would not eat. I wish there was a way to get nutrients without sitting down for a meal.’ ”  — Nicholson

17. “My family fears that the Russians will assassinate me.” — Elon Musk

18. “We all worked 20 hours a day, and he worked 23 hours.” — Julie Ankenbrandt on working with Musk at the start-up X.com, which would later merge with Confinity and lead to what we know as PayPal.

19. “I remember him saying, ‘Being with me was choosing the hard path.’ I didn’t quite understand at the time, but I do now. It’s quite hard, quite the crazy ride.” — Talulah Riley, who has twice been divorced from Musk.

20. “I remember thinking it was a lot of drama, and that if I was going to put up with it, we might as well be married. I told him he should just propose to me.” — Justine Musk recalling an argument with Elon while walking near the X.com offices. After calming down he proposed on the sidewalk.

21. “I’d seen him before, but did worry that maybe he could have an off day. Still, I thought, he would maybe hit one gonad but not both.” — Elon Musk, discussing how he held balloons in his hands and between his legs at one of his birthday parties, and let a knife thrower pop the balloons.

22. “We’ve grown [expletive] soft.” — Elon Musk, after Vance noted that hundreds of people were working at Tesla’s headquarters on a Saturday.

How the Elon Musk biography exposes Walter Isaacson

One way to keep musk’s myth intact is simply not to check things out..

By Elizabeth Lopatto , a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg.

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The trouble began days before the biography was even published.

CNN had a story summarizing an excerpt of Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk that claimed Musk had shut down SpaceX’s satellite network, Starlink, to prevent a “Ukrainian sneak attack” on the Russian navy. The Washington Post followed it up, publishing the excerpt where Isaacson claimed Musk had essentially shut down a military offensive on a personal whim.

This reporting did not pass the smell test to me, and I said so at the time ; I wondered about the sourcing. One of the things that anyone covering Elon Musk for long enough has to reckon with is that he loves to tell hilarious lies. For instance:

• “Funding secured.” Remember when Elon Musk pretended he was going to take Tesla private and had everything in order, and then whoopsie, that was not at all true ?
• Tesla share sales. Of course, there’s the time in April 2022 when he sold Tesla shares and said he had no further sales planned , followed by him selling more Tesla shares in August 2022, when he said he was done selling Tesla shares . He sold more shares in November 2022 .
• Tesla and Bitcoin. Remember when Musk said, “ I might pump but I don’t dump ,” and then Tesla sold 75 percent of its Bitcoin ?
• The staged 2016 Autopilot demo video. In the demo video, which features the title card “The car is driving by itself,” the car was not driving by itself , Tesla’s director of Autopilot software said in a deposition. Musk himself asked for that copy.
• The batteries in Teslas will be exchangeable. Refueling your EV will just be a battery swap that will happen faster than pumping gas.
• The time he said Teslas might fly. I am not making this up . He really said he’d replace the rear seats with thrusters, and journalists spent time trying to figure out what the fuck that meant .

The thing you learn after a while on the Musk beat is that his most self-aggrandizing statements usually bear the least resemblance to reality. Musk says a lot of stuff! Some of it is exaggeration, and some isn’t true at all.

Isaacson’s sweeping 670-page biography has an intense amount of access to the man at its center. The problem is the man is Elon Musk, a guy who in 2011 promised to get us to space in just three years . In reality, the first SpaceX crew launched into orbit almost a decade later. Sure, access is the appeal of the biography — but access gives Musk lots of chances to sell his own mythology.

I wanted to know if Isaacson had done his homework

So when I opened the Musk biography, I wanted to know if Isaacson had done his homework. The first thing I did was flip to the back, where the author lists his sources for the Ukraine thing. They are: interviews with Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, and Jared Birchall (Musk’s body man); emails from Lauren Dreyer; and text messages from Mykhailo Fedorov, “provided by Elon Musk.” Other sources are news articles, one of which was about SpaceX curbing Ukraine’s use of drones . Crucially, though, this article says nothing about Ukrainian submarines — instead, it’s primarily about aerial vehicles.

 In his book, Isaacson writes:

Throughout the evening and into the night, he [Musk] personally took charge of the situation. Allowing the use of Starlink for the attack, he concluded, could be a disaster for the world. So he secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within a hundred kilometers of the Crimean coast. As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.

That final sentence is arresting, isn’t it? I could find no support for it in any of the news articles that Isaacson listed as sources for this chapter. There is a Financial Times story that confirms some Starlink outages during a Ukrainian push against the Russians, but it says nothing about drone subs or washing ashore harmlessly. A New York Times article confirms Musk doesn’t want Starlink running drones but says nothing about drone subs.

What could the possible source for this sentence be? In the following paragraph, Isaacson quotes text messages from Fedorov, who had “secretly shared with him [Musk] the details of how the drone subs were crucial” to the Ukrainians. Not very secret now, I suppose.

Musk disputed Isaacson’s account on Twitter: “SpaceX did not deactivate anything,” he said. “There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol,” he went on, though he did not specify which government’s authorities . “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

Isaacson caved immediately :

To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.

Tremendous statement. “To clarify” obfuscates what’s going on: is Isaacson saying his book is wrong? Surely that is what this means since “future editions will be updated” to correct it . The Post corrected its excerpt , anyway. “The Ukrainians thought” — which Ukrainians, and how did Isaacson know their thinking? In his listed sources, we have only the text messages of one Ukrainian, who, for diplomatic purposes, may be obscuring what he knows. “They asked Musk to enable it for their drone attack” is an entirely different account than the one given in the book, which says Musk shut off existing coverage rather than approving extended coverage; what could possibly be the source here? And of course, the last sentence — “Musk did not enable it because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war” — is simple boot-licking.

We are dealing with not one but two unreliable narrators: Musk and Isaacson himself

Isaacson “clarified” further in another tweet. ”Based on my conversations with Musk, I mistakenly thought the policy to not allow Starlink to be used for an attack on Crimea had been first decided on the night of the Ukrainian attempted sneak attack that night,” he wrote on Twitter . “He now says that the policy had been implemented earlier, but the Ukrainians did not know it, and that night he simply reaffirmed the policy.”

There was a way to find out what’s true here, and it would have been to interview more sources, both Ukrainian and US military ones. Isaacson chose not to. Musk’s word was good enough for him — and so, when Musk contested the characterization, Isaacson rolled over.

I am lingering here because it highlights a major problem with Isaacson’s biography. We are dealing with not one but two unreliable narrators: Musk and Isaacson himself. After all, just before issuing his clarification, Isaacson had been touting a walk through the SpaceX factory with CBS’s David Pogue to promote his book. 

Isaacson writes a specific kind of biography. There is even a “genius” boxed set of his biographies that includes Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and — somewhat incongruously — Steve Jobs. 

One way to keep Musk’s myth intact is simply not to check things out

Having made a pattern of writing biographies of important men — and one important woman, Jennifer Doudna of CRISPR fame — Isaacson is now in the position of a kind of kingmaker. To keep up his pattern, everyone he writes about implicitly is branded a genius. 

One way to keep Musk’s myth intact is simply not to check things out. Within the first three paragraphs of the book, Isaacson describes a wilderness survival camp Musk attended, where “every few years, one of the kids would die.” This is a striking claim! I flipped to the “notes” section to see if Isaacson had interviewed any of Musk’s schoolmates. He hadn’t. There are no news articles backing it up, either. So what is the source? Presumably one or more of the Musks — Elon is quoted directly as saying the counselors told him not to die like another kid in a previous year. 

Arguably the entire Musk family has an interest in presenting Elon Musk as preternaturally tough and also as using his tough childhood as an excuse for his continuing bad behavior. There are some weird choices as a result.

Isaacson writes that Musk’s “blood boiled if anyone falsely implied he had succeeded because of inherited wealth or claimed he didn’t deserve to be called a founder of one of the companies he helped start.” The bolding on “falsely” is mine because Isaacson had earlier detailed Errol Musk, Elon’s father, giving Elon and Kimbal Musk “$28,000 plus a beat-up car he bought for $500” to help them start Zip2. Maye, Elon’s mother, contributed another $10,000 and “let them use her credit card because they had not been approved for one.” Certainly Musk got started with family money. Is the problem about the meaning of “inherited wealth”?

Skipping how dependent Musk is on Texas is a howler

Here’s another strange choice. “Over the years, one criticism of Tesla has been that the company was ‘bailed out’ or ‘subsidized’ by the government in 2009.” This is not quite right. Over the years, the criticism has been that Tesla has gotten a great deal of assistance from state, federal, and local governments , sometimes screwing them in the process, as demonstrated by the Buffalo Gigafactory. By one estimate, Tesla alone has gotten more than $3 billion in loans and subsidies from state and local governments . While Isaacson gives a detailed accounting of Tesla’s $465 million in loans from a DOE program, he skips all the rest of the assists Musk has gotten over the years — goodies that have inspired jealousy from the likes of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos .

Then there’s this description of Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company: “The idea for Neuralink was inspired by science fiction, most notably the Culture space-travel novels by Iain Banks.” Maybe so, but there’s actual science fact : brain-machine interfaces had been implanted in humans as early as 2006 , something Isaacson doesn’t mention. Musk certainly didn’t come up with the idea; brain-machine interfaces already existed. Nor does Isaacson mention the gruesome allegations about Neuralink’s test subjects .

But I want to get to the real big one: Musk’s politics. This is a recurring theme for Isaacson, and his perspective is bewildering.

Musk’s dependence on taxpayer largess plays a role here; skipping how dependent Musk is on Texas is a howler. Musk has often donated in ways that will benefit him in Texas , where he has a substantial operation. So writing a sentence like “Musk has never been very political” when Musk has donated more than $1 million to politicians in the last 20 years is odd.

Now, I personally view Musk as a political nihilist, willing to say whatever he needs to say to get taxpayer money. But it’s undeniable that he’s spent decades palling around with libertarian-to-far-right types (most famously Peter Thiel and David Sacks, who is inexplicably described as “not rigidly partisan” despite coauthoring a noxious book with Thiel that, among other things, suggested date rape wasn’t real ). 

If you know these details, Musk looks like a dolt

These long-standing right-wing ties belie the notion advanced by Isaacson that the real cause of Musk’s right-wing pivot is his daughter, Jenna; I found these sections of the book difficult to read, as they essentially amount to victim blaming. In Isaacson’s telling, “Jenna’s anger made Musk sensitive to the backlash against billionaires.” She stopped speaking to her father in 2020 and transitioned without telling him. 

I wonder, though Isaacson doesn’t, if she didn’t tell him because she was afraid to. Musk found out from a member of his security detail — and it’s revealing to me that none of the people around Musk who knew, including Grimes, wanted to break the news. It’s not unusual for queer people to hide from parents they suspect will reject them; there is a reason many gay and trans people have “ found families .” 

When Musk tweets, “Take the red pill,” in 2020, Isaacson notes that it’s a reference to The Matrix but does not add that The Matrix is a movie made by two people who later came out as trans. In fact, The Matrix itself is a trans story — in the ’90s, prescription estrogen was literally a red pill . Isaacson includes Ivanka Trump’s reply (“Taken!”) but not that of Matrix creator Lilly Wachowski: “ Fuck both of you .” If you know these details, Musk looks like a dolt — sort of a problem for a biographer trying to write a Great Man book.

Similarly, Isaacson falls flat on racial issues — the existence of apartheid in Musk’s youth is barely mentioned. It’s a strange omission; Musk’s maternal grandfather, Joshua Haldeman . was the chair of the national council of the Social Credit Party, which was openly antisemitic. Haldeman’s beliefs are characterized by Isaacson as “quirky conservative populist views,” which… led him to immigrate to Pretoria, South Africa, which was ruled by the racist apartheid regime. 

Justine Musk and Amber Heard are both disparaged

One of the other things Isaacson doesn’t mention is the alleged racist working conditions at Tesla’s Fremont factory . Recently, a former Tesla worker was awarded millions for racist abuse at work . This does seem relevant to Musk’s politics.

Also relevant: how Isaacson treats Musk’s exes. Justine Musk and Amber Heard are both disparaged. Of Justine Musk, Elon’s mother said, “She has no redeeming feature.” Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother and sometimes business partner, is quoted as saying, “This is the wrong person for you.” We don’t hear Justine’s side of the story, except via a magazine article she published during her divorce, “ I Was a Starter Wife .” It makes me wonder: is Justine under a non-disclosure agreement? Did she sign something with a non-disparagement clause, like Tesla founder Martin Eberhard ? Isaacson spoke to her — so why did she have nothing to say?

Similarly, Amber Heard is described by Kimbal as “so toxic,” by Grimes as “chaotic evil,” and by Musk’s chief of staff as “the Joker in Batman… She thrives on destabilizing everything.” Heard is even blamed for Musk’s misbehavior — including “funding secured” in 2018. Even so, Heard’s response is muted enough (“I love him very much,” she says. “Elon loves fire and sometimes it burns him.”) that I wonder if she, too, is NDA’d. By not even bringing up this possibility, Isaacson’s story is inherently skewed.

There is one person we do know is under an NDA: a flight attendant who says Musk propositioned her in 2016 . We also know that five women at SpaceX have said that harassment was regular at the company and that women workers at Tesla say they have been subjected to “nightmarish” sexual harassment . This does not especially interest Isaacson.

Isaacson does have time for a lot of Steve Jobs comparisons, which, after a while, begin to feel like product placement

The workers at Musk’s companies, generally, don’t interest his biographer much. Isaacson begins describing the 2018 Fremont production push from Musk’s perspective: “Musk had come to realize that designing a good factory was like designing a good microchip.” During the production surge, Musk began walking the floor, barking questions at workers, and “making decisions on the fly.” He decided that safety sensors were “too sensitive, tripping when there was no real problem.” 

In this chapter, Isaacson cites stories where rank-and-file workers complained about being pressured to take shortcuts and work 10-hour days. “There was some truth to the complaints,” Isaacson writes. “Tesla’s injury rate was 30 percent higher than the rest of the industry.” Leave aside the risible “some truth.” There is a very obvious question that Isaacson had the access to explore: how did Musk’s meddling with the safety sensors, the seat-of-the-pants fixes changes to the manufacturing process, and general “production hell” affect that injury rate? He chose not to. The injuries among Tesla’s workers aren’t mentioned further.

Isaacson does have time for a lot of Steve Jobs comparisons, which, after a while, begin to feel like product placement for his other book. In the index, Jobs is listed as showing up on 20 pages. You’d be forgiven for thinking Jobs was an important part of Musk’s rise, based on the index alone.

It’s impossible to escape the conclusion that Musk views everyone around him as disposable. The biography teems with mentions of Musk firing people on the spot, demanding to have things his own way even when it is stupid and expensive, and being unable to tolerate even the slightest dissent. “When Elon gets upset, he lashes out, often at junior people,” Jon McNeill, the former president of Tesla, says. 

The later chapters aren’t very revealing

“You definitely realize you’re a tool being used to achieve this larger objective and that’s great,” says Lucas Hughes, who worked as a financial analyst at SpaceX and was one of the junior people Musk lashed out at. “But sometimes tools get worn down and he feels he can just replace that tool.” Musk believes that “when people want to prioritize their comfort and leisure they should leave,” Isaacson writes.

The later chapters aren’t very revealing. Isaacson is bought in on Musk’s vision of AI and his hinky Tesla Bot . The biographer has swallowed Musk’s hype here wholesale. But I remember the days of the “ alien dreadnought, ” the promises for swappable batteries that never materialized, and the countless other things Musk said that turned out to be, at best, exaggeration. In 10 years, the big revelation that Musk switched off the Ukrainian internet access during a battle may not be the most embarrassing thing Isaacson has committed to the page.

Isaacson wraps up the book by ponderously wondering if Musk’s achievements are possible without his bad behavior: 

Would a restrained Musk accomplish as much as a Musk unbound? Is being unfiltered and untethered integral to who he is? Could you get the rockets to orbit or the transition to electric vehicles without accepting all aspects of him, hinged and unhinged? Sometimes great innovators are risk-seeking man-children who resist potty training.

This seems to me to be the wrong set of questions. Here are some other ones: If Musk were more receptive to criticism, would his companies be in better shape? If Musk cared more about the team around him, what else could he have accomplished by now? Is achieving the specific vision Musk has for the world worth the injuries he’s inflicted on his workforce? Do we — the readers of Isaacson’s book — want this particular man’s vision of the future at all?

While Isaacson manages to detail what makes Musk awful, he seems unaware of what made Musk an inspiring figure for so long. Musk is a fantasist, the kind of person who conceives of civilizations on Mars. That’s what people liked all this time : dreaming big, thinking about new possible worlds. It’s also why Musk’s shifting political stance undercuts him. The fantasy of the conservative movement is small and sad, a limited world with nothing new to explore. Musk has gone from dreaming very, very big to seeming very, very small . In the hands of a talented biographer, this kind of tragic story would provide rich material.

Correction 11:00AM ET: The original version of this mischaracterized Musk’s donations — he has donated more than $1 million, not more than $1 billion. We regret the error.

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Elon Musk: 199 Best Quotes from the Great Entrepreneur: Tesla, SpaceX, Exciting Future, Money, Failure and Success (Powerful Lessons from the Extraordinary People Book 1) Paperback – September 28, 2017

Purchase options and add-ons, want to die on mars think as elon musk does, elon musk is one of the world's greatest entrepreneurs of our time, and the most frequently quoted one., "i'm not trying to be anyone's saviour. i'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad," elon musk said at the ted conference in vancouver..

This is a mindset of the billionaire and the PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla Inc. and Solar City founder who invests all his energy and fortune on the projects that are designed to make the future of humankind really fantastic. To Musk, establishing a human colony on Mars, creating a high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop and building a space-based Internet is the reality of our immediate future.

This book presents a selection of the best Elon Musk quotations that come from his interviews, TV shows, conference speeches, lectures at the universities, Tesla and SpaceX official web sites, and his social networks accounts. For the readers' convenience, all the quotes are arranged into thematic chapters that cover a range of topics, from his personal life and education to visions of the future. You can go to any random page and choose any chapter.

The biography book of quotes will help you understand:

• Book 1 of 3 Powerful Lessons from the Extraordinary People
• Print length 106 pages
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Olivia Longray, born September 6, 1980, is a journalist and author who loves her family and the surrounding world. She perceives life as a gift given to us for self-improvement, creative work and growing in love.

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Books of The Times

‘Elon Musk,’ a Biography by Ashlee Vance, Paints a Driven Portrait

By Dwight Garner

• May 12, 2015

“We’ve become a nation of indoor cats,” Dave Eggers wrote in “A Hologram for the King” (2012), his existential novel about an American doing IT work in the Saudi Arabian desert. “A nation of doubters, worriers, overthinkers.”

Ashlee Vance, in his new biography of the celebrity industrialist Elon Musk, delivers a similar notion of the deflating American soul. An early Facebook engineer tells Mr. Vance, “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” The author quotes the venture capitalist Peter Thiel: “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.”

If Silicon Valley was holding out for a hero after Steve Jobs’s death, a disrupter in chief, it has found a brawny one in Mr. Musk. This South African-born entrepreneur, inventor and engineer is the animating force behind companies (Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity) that have made startling advances in non-indoor-cat arenas: electric cars, space exploration and solar energy. He is all of 43.

Mr. Musk is about as close as we have, circa 2015, to early industrial titans like Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Along with his swagger, he totes surprise, style and wit. Tesla’s Model S sedan was not only Motor Trend’s car of the year in 2013 — the first non-internal-combustion engine vehicle to win that award — but it also has a sound system that, in a homage to the film “Spinal Tap,” you can turn up to 11.

“Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” isn’t the first biography we’ve had of Mr. Musk, nor will it be the last. But it is easily the richest to date. It’s also the first one Mr. Musk has cooperated with, though he had no control, the author says, over its contents. Mr. Vance is a technology writer for Bloomberg Businessweek . He won over Mr. Musk, who initially declined to be interviewed, impressing him with his diligence after he had interviewed some 200 people.

The result is a book that is smart, light on its feet and possesses a crunchy thoroughness. Mr. Vance can occasionally veer toward hagiography and the diction of news releases. After noting that Mr. Musk’s grand vision is to colonize Mars, for example, Mr. Vance writes:

“He’s the possessed genius on the grandest quest anyone has ever concocted. He’s less a C.E.O. chasing riches than a general marshaling troops to secure victory. Where Mark Zuckerberg wants to help you share baby photos, Musk wants to ... well ... save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation.” As the Beast from “X-Men” likes to remark, Oh my stars and garters.

Mostly, though, Mr. Vance curbs his enthusiasm and delivers a well-calibrated portrait of Mr. Musk, so that we comprehend both his friends and his enemies. It’s a book with many ancillary pleasures. Mr. Vance brings us up to date on the states of green energy and space launches. He also veers away from his subject just often enough, offering profiles of the frequently brilliant people who work alongside Mr. Musk.

Bits from this biography have already made Internet gossip ripples. According to Mr. Vance, Mr. Musk berated a male employee who missed a Tesla event to be present for the birth of his child. (Mr. Musk has denied this .) Either way, he does not come off like Alan Alda. He has been married three times — twice to the same woman — and, while thinking about fitting a new relationship into his schedule, he asks: “How much time does a woman want a week? Maybe 10 hours?”

Other eye-popping details, not all of them previously reported, are flecked atop this book like sea salt. His five children don’t merely have nannies but have had a nanny manager. He worries that Google is building a fleet of robots that may accidentally destroy mankind. He rents castles and sumo wrestlers for his parties. At one of them, a knife thrower aimed at a balloon between the blindfolded Mr. Musk’s legs.

The best thing Mr. Vance does in this book, though, is tell Mr. Musk’s story simply and well. It’s the story of an intelligent man, for sure. But more so it is the story of a determined one. Mr. Musk’s work ethic has always been intense. One observer says about him early on, “We all worked 20 hour days, and he worked 23 hours.”

Mr. Musk was born in 1971 and grew up in Pretoria. His father was an engineer; his mother, whose family had roots in the United States and Canada, was a model and dietitian. There are indications his father was brutal, and that Mr. Musk is a tortured soul trying to make up for a wrecked childhood. But no one will speak specifically about any such events.

He attended college in Canada before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and moving to the West Coast. His first start-up, a company that provided maps and business directories, was bought by Compaq Computer and made Mr. Musk $22 million. His interest in online banking led to his part in the creation of PayPal. When it was sold to eBay, he walked away with roughly $250 million, the author says, enough to bankroll his interests in space and green technology.

Mr. Musk got started in space exploration by first learning all he could about it, sometimes reading Soviet-era rocket manuals. There were many failures, and several near-bankruptcies, along the way to making SpaceX what it is today, notably one of only two private companies to have docked with the International Space Station.

Mr. Vance tells the stories of both SpaceX and Tesla with intricacy and insight, often stuffing the technological details, for those who are interested, into long footnotes. We come less close to Mr. Musk himself. Though the author interviewed him for several dozen hours, he remains a remote and somewhat chilly figure, a perfectionist not unlike Mr. Jobs, often given to confrontation and fits of rage.

What does come through is a sense of legitimate wonder at what humans can accomplish when they aim high, and aim weird. The animosity and jealousy some feel toward Mr. Musk’s achievements put me in mind of a great line from the HBO show “Silicon Valley,” in which the tech chief executive Gavin Belson comments, “I don’t know about you people, but I don’t want to live in a world where someone else makes the world a better place better than we do.”

Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

By Ashlee Vance

392 pages. Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers. $28.99.

The Books of The Times review on Wednesday, about “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance, misspelled part of the name of the company that bought Mr. Musk’s first start-up for $22 million. It was Compaq Computer, not Compac Computer.

An earlier version of this review rendered incorrectly a quotation from the HBO show “Silicon Valley.” In the show, the character of the tech chief executive Gavin Belson says, “I don’t know about you people, but I don’t want to live in a world where someone else makes the world a better place better than we do,” not “I don’t know about you people, but I wouldn’t want to live in a world where someone else makes the world a better place than we do.”

The Books of The Times review on May 13, about “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future” by Ashlee Vance, erroneously attributed a distinction to the company SpaceX. Besides SpaceX, Orbital Sciences Corporation also docked a spacecraft with the International Space Station; SpaceX is not the only private company to have done so.

How we handle corrections

The World of Elon Musk

The billionaire’s portfolio includes the world’s most valuable automaker, an innovative rocket company and plenty of drama..

SpaceX: President Biden wants companies that use American airspace for rocket launches to start paying taxes into a federal fund  that finances the work of air traffic controllers.

Tesla: The maker of electric vehicles appeared to be losing command of the market it effectively created after reporting a stunning drop in quarterly sales , raising fresh questions about Elon Musk’s leadership of the company.

Business With China : Tesla and China built a symbiotic relationship that made Elon Musk ultrarich. Now, his reliance on the country may give Beijing leverage .  

A Testy Interview:  In the wake of a rough interview with Elon Musk that touched upon Donald Trump, his reported drug use and hate speech on X,  the former television anchor Don Lemon said that his deal for a new talk show on X was called off  just days before it was scheduled to air.

The Musk Foundation: After making billions in tax-deductible donations to his charity, Musk has failed recently to donate the minimum required to justify a tax break  — and what he did give often supported his interests.

OpenAI: Musk, who helped found the A.I. start-up in 2015, has filed a lawsuit  accusing the company and its chief executive  of breaching a contract  by putting profits and commercial interests ahead of the public good.

• The 30 Smartest, Funniest, and Most Inspiring Elon Musk Quotes

The first time I read Elon Musk ‘s name was in Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One . That was in 2014. Back then, not everyone in the world knew who Elon was. Sure, he was already a billionaire, already “famous” by conventional standards, but he was far from the world’s richest person , nor the most-followed account on Twitter . Today, everyone “knows” Elon Musk — but few people actually know anything more than what they read about him in the media. Whether you want to get to know the real Elon or are simply looking for some of his best lines and words of inspiration, today’s list of the best Elon Musk quotes will deliver!

Hi there! My name is Nik. I’m a writer . While I’m not the world’s biggest Elon expert, I’ve been following him for almost ten years. I read his biography , and I’ve watched many an interview and documentary to experience the man in his own words. As such, I have a good overview of what he said when and where, and today, I’d like to put that knowledge to good use.

This organized collection will highlight the 10 most inspiring lines from Elon over the years. We’ll also include his 10 smartest, most-likely-to-blow-your-mind arguments, and his 10 funniest jokes. Unlike most quote lists, we’ll provide the original source for each quote. Finally, we’ll share where you can find even more Elon Musk quotes, briefly summarize his life for you, and provide some premade, custom images you can use to share your favorite “Muskisms” to social media.

The easiest way to navigate this list is to jump to whichever section interests you the most using the table of contents below. If you want to share a quote, you can highlight it and various options will appear. Or, just skip to the images section and pick your favorite.

Now, like Elon once said when asked why he put $100+ million, most of his fortune, into a rocket company and a car company instead of sipping Mai Tais on the beach — “Needed to get going on accelerating sustainable energy & making life multi-planetary” — let’s get going!

Table of Contents

The 10 Most Inspiring Elon Musk Quotes

The 10 smartest, most-likely-to-blow-your-mind elon musk quotes, the 10 funniest elon musk quotes, more elon musk quotes, the best elon musk quotes for sharing on social media, who is elon musk (his life in 500 words), other quote lists.

Elon gets his inspiration from bringing about a positive, hopeful, optimistic future for humanity. That has been his driving motivator since he was a teenager, and everything he does maps to that vision. In turn, we can get a lot of inspiration from him simply by observing him. Watching the lone warrior fight against the odds makes us want to do and be better, too.

Every now and then, however, Elon also speaks to inspiration more directly. Here are what I think to be his 10 most heartening lines.

1. “Never. I don’t ever give up. I’d have to be dead or completely incapacitated. For my part, I will never give up, and I mean never.”

2. “I think people can choose to be not ordinary. You know, they can choose to not necessarily conform to the conventions that were taught to them by their parents. So, yes, I think it’s possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary. ”

3. “A source of strength, hm. That’s really not how I think about things. For me it’s simply: This is something that is important to get done, and we we should just keep doing it or die trying . I don’t need a source of strength. [Quitting] is not in my nature, and I don’t care about optimism or pessimism. F*ck that, we’re gonna get it done.”

4. “You guys are the magicians of the 21st century. Don’t let anything hold you back. Imagination is the limit. Go out there and create some magic.”

5. “[Mars] would just be the greatest adventure. Ever. And very exciting. And I think we need things in life that are exciting and inspiring. It can’t just be about solving some awful problem. There have to be reasons to get up in the morning.”

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

7. “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds aren’t in your favor.”

8. “When I was a little kid, I was really scared of the dark. But then I came to understand, okay, dark just means the absence of photons in the visible wavelength — 400 to 700 nanometers. Then I thought, well, it’s really silly to be afraid of a lack of photons. Then I wasn’t afraid of the dark anymore after that.”

9. “I feel fear quite strongly. It’s not as though I just have the absence of fear. I feel it quite strongly. But there are times when something is important enough, you believe in it enough, that you do it in spite of the fear. People shouldn’t think, ‘I feel fear about this, and therefore I shouldn’t do it.’ It’s normal to feel fear. There’d have to be something mentally wrong [with you] if you didn’t feel fear. […] If you just accept the probabilities, then that diminishes fear.”

10. “I think it’s very difficult to start companies and quite painful. There’s a friend of mine who’s got a good phrase for doing a startup: ‘It’s like eating glass and staring into the abyss.’ If you’re sort of wired to do it, then you should do it, but not otherwise. If you need inspiring words, don’t do it. ”

Bonus : For more Elon motivation, watch this video . There are thousands of them out there, so don’t get lost for too long, but that one really blew my socks off.

No matter how inspiring you might be, you don’t become the world’s richest man simply by being someone others find encouraging. You have to change the world. From electric cars to sustainable energy to reusable rockets, sustainable AI, brain interfaces, high-speed transportation, and even a walking, learning-capable robot , Elon continues to do so in more ways than one.

As a shy kid with Asperger’s Syndrome , Elon devoured books about science and philosophy as a teenager. He also holds degrees in economics and physics. Most of his ideas that seem genius to you and me, however, he simply discovered while doing an incredible amount of work in a wide-ranging area of disciplines. Here are the 10 Elon quotes most likely to blow your mind:

11. “Well, I do think there’s a good framework for thinking. It is physics. You know, the sort of first principles reasoning. What I mean by that is boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy. Through most of our life, we get through life by reasoning by analogy, which essentially means copying what other people do with slight variations. And you have to do that. Otherwise, mentally, you wouldn’t be able to get through the day. But when you want to do something new, you have to apply the physics approach.”

12. “If somebody is doing something that is useful to the rest of society, I think that’s a good thing. It doesn’t have to change the world. If you make something that has high value to people, and frankly even if it’s a little game or, you know, some improvement in photo-sharing — if it has a small amount of good for a large number of people, I think that’s fine. Having something that makes a big difference but affects a small to moderate number of people is great, as is something that makes an even smaller difference but affects a vast number of people. Stuff doesn’t need to change the world to be good. ”

13. “I think most people can learn a lot more than they think they can. They sell themselves short without trying. One bit of advice: It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e. the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details, or there is nothing for them to hang on to.”

14. “Somebody could say — and in fact people do — that battery packs are really expensive, and that’s just the way they will always be, because that’s the way they have been in the past. Well, no, that’s pretty dumb. Because if you applied that reasoning to anything new, then you wouldn’t be able to ever get to that new thing. […] For batteries, they would say, ‘historically, it has cost $600 per kilowatt-hour, and so it’s not going to be much better than that in the future.’ So first principles would be to say, ‘What are the material constituents of the batteries? What is the spot market value of the material constituents? It’s got cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon, some polymers for separation, and a steel can.’ So break that down on a material basis and say, ‘If we bought that on the London Metal Exchange, what would each of those things cost? Oh, jeez, it’s like $80 per kilowatt-hour.’ So, clearly, you just need to think of clever ways to take those materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell, and you can have batteries that are much, much cheaper than anyone realizes.”

15. “ It’ s very important to actively seek out and listen very carefully to negative feedback. This is something that people tend to avoid because it’s painful, but I think this is a very common mistake. To not actively seek out and listen to negative feedback. […] When friends get a product, I say, ‘Look, don’t tell me what you like. Tell me what you don’t like.’ Because otherwise your friend is not going to tell you what he doesn’t like. You really need to sort of coax negative feedback. If somebody’s your friend or at least not your enemy, and they’re giving you negative feedback, then they may be wrong, but it’s coming from a good place.”

16. “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. ”

17. “I read a quote from Arthur C. Clark which said that ‘A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ And that’s really true. If you go back say, 300 years, the things we take for granted today, you’d be burned at the stake for. Being able to fly. That’s crazy. Being able to see over long distances, being able to communicate, having, effectively, with the Internet, a group mind of sorts, and having access to all the world’s information instantly from almost anywhere on the earth. This is stuff that would be considered magic in times past. In fact, I think it actually goes beyond that, because there are many things that we take for granted today that weren’t even imagined in times past. That weren’t even in the realm of magic. So it actually goes beyond that. So I thought, well, if I can do some of those things – if I can advance technology, then that’s like magic, and that would be really cool.”

18. “A good sign as to whether there’s free speech is: Is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like? If that is the case, then we have free speech. And it’s damn annoying when someone you don’t like says something you don’t like. [But] that is a sign of a healthy, functioning, free speech situation.”

19. “One of the really tough things is figuring out what questions to ask. Once you figure out the question, then the answer is relatively easy. I came to the conclusion that really we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask. The only thing that makes sense to do is strive for greater collective enlightenment.”

20. “ Always take the position that you are to some degree wrong, and your goal is to be less wrong over time. One of the biggest mistakes people generally make, and I’m guilty of it too, is wishful thinking. You want something to be true, even if it isn’t true. And so you ignore the real truth because of what you want to be true. This is a very difficult trap to avoid. [So] just take that approach, that you’re always to some degree wrong, and your goal is to be less wrong.”

Bonus : If you’re looking for more smart ideas from the man and want to get deeper into his thinking process, here are 3 of my favorite interviews with him (one short, one medium, one long) that’ll get you the most bang for your buck — or smarts for your time, in this case:

• How to Build the Future (with Sam Altman for Y Combinator) (19:32)
• Elon Musk talks Twitter, Tesla and how his brain works — live at TED2022 (54:45)
• Elon Musk: SpaceX, Mars, Tesla Autopilot, Self-Driving, Robotics, and AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #252 (2:31:47)

For all his serious, civilization-affecting activities, Elon seems to still have plenty of fun along the way. Unlike most other billionaires, business magnates, politicians, and otherwise influential figures, however, he actually shares his joy with us. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. He is notorious for posting memes on Twitter, cracking jokes, and often following through on what at first seems like a prank announcement.

From labeling Tesla’s car model lineup with letters spelling “S3XY” to selling flamethrowers, “boring hats,” and burned hair to repainting the sign on Twitter’s headquarters to look like it spells “Titter,” Elon’s antics have made for many laughs over the years. At times, they’ve also gotten him into trouble. In any case, here are Elon’s 10 funniest tweets and jokes:

21. After his acquisition of Twitter to prioritize free speech on the platform again: “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in.”

22. “I would like to die on Mars — just not on impact.”

23. On wrecking his McLaren F1 with Peter Thiel in the passenger seat: “We’re driving up Sand Hill Road, and Peter says: ‘So, what can this do?’ And then, probably number one on the list of famous last words, I said: ‘Watch this.’”

24. While entering Twitter HQ after acquiring the company, holding a sink: “Let that sink in!”

25. After almost dying from a misdiagnosed type of malaria, which he acquired on his first vacation, a trip to Africa, in years: “That’s my lesson for taking a vacation: Vacations will kill you.”

26. “If there’s ever a scandal about me, please call it Elongate.”

27. “I put the art in fart.”

28. For the chemistry nerds: “Technically, alcohol is a solution.”

29. When asked why so many of the SpaceX rocket launches happen at night: “It’s much easier to do the CGI that way.”

30. On the need to go to Mars and beyond: “We can’t be one of those lame one-planet civilizations!”

Bonus : If you want more fun Elon, here’s him hosting Meme Review PewDiePie-style , and here’s a collection of all his appearances in TV shows, cartoons, and Hollywood movies .

• This one I pieced together from an interview and his message to SpaceX employees after the third Falcon launch failure.
• From an interview at SpaceX .
• Talking to Lex Fridman on his podcast .
• From his commencement speech at Caltech in 2012 .
• Talking to Vanity Fair in 2014 .
• From his USC commencement speech in 2014 .
• On 60 Minutes in 2012 .
• From a documentary I can’t locate in full .
• In a 2016 interview with Y Combinator .
• To students of Draper University at a Tesla factory tour .
• In conversation with head of TED , Chris Anderson, in 2013.
• Pieced together from two sections of the Y Combinator interview ( one and two ).
• In a Reddit AMA .
• Talking to Kevin Rose .
• Also from the Kevin Rose interview .
• Talking to Lance Ulanoff for Mashable .
• From the Caltech commencement speech .
• Live at TED 2022 .
• As quoted in his biography .
• During the World Government Summit in 2017 .
• His most liked tweet .
• At South by Southwest in 2013 .
• In a PandoDaily interview in 2012 .
• On Twitter .
• Another tweet .
• Also Twitter .
• Aaaaand Twitter .

The more famous someone becomes, the more people love to put words in their mouth. That’s why there’s a plethora of fake Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, and, well, Elon Musk quotes. Therefore, it’s always best to verify your quotes and stick to their sources. When it comes to Elon, those can be his Twitter account and in-person interviews.

But the best bulk source for more Elon quotes, in my opinion, is Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future *, the only authorized biography of Elon so far, based on more than 30 hours of interviews with him directly and over 200 people who know him. The book is from 2015. There’s also a new biography by famed biographer Walter Isaacson that just came out, but I can’t speak to that one yet. But chronologically speaking, this one’s a great account of the early Tesla and SpaceX days — and Elon’s early life, of course.

Here’s a short overview of the book and two snazzy buttons to either buy the book (and support us with a small commission at no extra charge to you) or read our free, four-minute summary.

Favorite Quote

“If the rules are such that you can’t make progress, then you have to fight the rules.” — Elon Musk

The Book in One Sentence

Elon Musk is the first official biography of the creator of SolarCity, SpaceX and Tesla, based on over 30 hours of conversation time between author Ashlee Vance and Musk himself, highlighting his complicated childhood, the way he makes decisions and navigates the world, and how he managed to disrupt multiple industries, all with the goal of saving humanity.

Why should you read it?

Whether you’re a casual observer, hesitant skeptic, or diehard Elon fan, this book provides a great, mostly objective description of his life. It’s easy to judge someone based on a headline some reporter wrote to get clicks and make money. Truly getting to know someone takes work. At the same time, spending a few hours reading a book isn’t that much effort. After reading this book, you’ll know and understand Elon Musk better than 99% of all people on the planet — and there’s a big chance you’ll learn something new for your own journey along the way.

Key Takeaways

• Answering questions is easy, asking the right questions is what’s hard.
• Use a success-through-determination approach to accomplish your goals.
• Unify all of your work under the roof of one giant goal to have a bigger impact on the world.

If you want to learn more, you can read our free, four-minute summary or get a copy for yourself:

As mentioned in the intro, you can use the “highlight and share” feature to post any quote on this page to your socials. We’ve also made some custom images for you to easily tap and share. Some are optimized for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, while others follow Instagram’s classic square format or Pinterest’s more vertical layout.

Elon is obsessed with truth. It’s important to him to understand the world as it truly is and for people to know what his real motives are. He’s also skeptical of the advent of AI. He believes it’s an important and inevitable technology, but also that it must be realized in the right way. As such, we’ve decided to not use AI-generated background images this time. Instead, we stuck with real pictures of Elon Musk, the human being — we hope you’ll enjoy and he won’t mind. Happy sharing!

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Born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971, Elon grew up in a large family of constant travelers. His dad was an engineer and pilot and had a small plane. Elon was a shy and introverted kid, often bullied in school. He usually preferred books and video games to people, and he even sold a game he programmed at age 12 for $500. Elon’s parents divorced when he was nine. After mostly living with his father until he was of age, he became estranged from him and moved to Canada with his brother Kimbal. Initially, they made ends meet working odd jobs, as lumberjacks, for example.

Elon’s goal was always to reach and live in the US, the land of opportunity. He knew it would be easier to get a visa in Canada, and he was right. After attending university for a bit in Ontario, he switched to University of Pennsylvania and attained Bachelor degrees in both physics and economics. Instead of continuing in academia, however, Elon dropped out of his PhD program to start an early internet company with Kimbal . Zip2 brought businesses online and helped newspapers host city guides on the web. They sold the business for $300 million at the height of the dot-com boom.

After that, Elon founded X.com, a payments service which competed and later merged with PayPal. The latter was sold to Ebay for $1.5 billion. Musk then started SpaceX, a reusable-rocket company, and, after getting it off the ground, became Tesla’s CEO in 2008. The early days of those companies were brutal. On the outside, Elon looked wealthy. But of his $180 million fortune, not a single cent was left after funding these ventures . He even had to borrow money for rent .

Between funding issues that almost bankrupted both companies several times, four failed rocket launches before one finally worked, short sellers trying to manipulate Tesla’s stock, and three years of “ production hell ,” during which Elon slept on the floor in the Tesla factory as they desperately tried to ramp up Model 3 output to mass scale, his path to success has been anything but easy. Fortunately, today, 15 years after becoming Tesla’s CEO, Elon is still mainly known for being head of the electric car manufacturer. However, he has also started a slew of other ventures since.

From OpenAI (a non-profit to further controlled AI development) to Starlink (hardware for remote internet access from anywhere), Neuralink (a direct brain-to-computer interface system), and single-handedly buying Twitter, it’s hard to keep track of everything Elon does — and, as in his illustrious and wandering life path, there’s a lesson in that we can take away: Study widely, dive into anything you’re interested in, and never stop learning .

If Elon can teach himself how to program computer games, how to build rockets, and how to get a factory to churn out 100,000+ cars per month , there’s almost nothing you can’t learn either. We hope our list of quotes will inspire you to go after something you’re passionate about or, if you’re already doing that, give it even a little more effort than you already have been.

That’s it! That concludes our list of the 30 best quotes from Elon Musk. What do you think? Did we make some good picks? Or is there something you’re missing? In either case, tweet us your favorite Elon quote , and we’ll continue to occasionally update this list as Elon says more inspiring, smart, and funny things — which I’m sure he’ll keep doing regardless of what anyone thinks of him — and if nothing else, that’s a quality worth emulating.

Looking for more quotes from interesting people and lines from great books? Here are all quote lists we’ve hand-selected for you so far:

• The 30 Best & Most Popular Yoda Quotes
• The Catcher in the Rye Quotes: The 44 Best & Most Important Quotes From J. D. Salinger’s Masterpiece
• The 44 Best & Most Important Stoic Quotes From Seneca, Marcus Aurelius & Co.
• 414 Short Inspirational Quotes to Motivate You Right Now (2024)
• The 44 Most Famous & Thought-Provoking Philosophy Quotes From History’s Greatest Philosophers
• The 44 Best & Most Important Quotes From Marcus Aurelius
• The 365 Most Famous Quotes of All Time (in 27 Categories, Backed by Data & With Real Sources)
• The 21 Best & Most Underrated Dumbledore Quotes
• The 33 Best, Most Important, and Most Inspiring Quotes From Bruce Lee
• The 45 Best Brené Brown Quotes About Courage, Shame & Vulnerability
• Brave New World Quotes: The 50 Best & Most Important Lines From Aldous Huxley’s Masterpiece
• The 33 Best, Most Popular, and Most Inspiring Albert Einstein Quotes
• 1984 Quotes: The 30 Best & Most Important Lines From George Orwell’s Masterpiece

Last Updated on October 2, 2023

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

Need some inspiration? 👀 Here are... The 365 Most Famous Quotes of All Time »

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Elon Musk Quotes

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

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

When you struggle with a problem, that's when you understand it.

Many things are improbable, only a few are impossible.

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

Engineering is the closest thing to magic that exists in the world.

People should pursue what they're passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.

For me it was never about money, but solving problems for the future of humanity.

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

What I'm trying to do is to maximise the probability of the future being better.

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

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

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

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 other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing you know that you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them a year to achieve.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.

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

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

Most people can learn a lot more than they think they can. They sell themselves short without trying.

With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon.

Actively seek out and listen carefully to negative feedback.

The biggest mistake, in general, I've made, is to put too much of a weighting on someone's talent and not enough on their personality. And I've made that mistake several times. I think it actually matters whether somebody has a good heart, it really does. I've made the mistake of thinking that it's sometimes just about the brain.

We need to figure out how to have the things we love, and not destroy the world.

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.

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

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Latest quotes from interviews

"The only reason I was able to accomplish things is the great people willing to work with me. A company is a group of people organized to create a product or service, and that product or service is only as good as the people in the company - and how excited they are about creating it. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. Without them, I would have accomplished very little. I just happen to be the face of the companies."

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• Born: June 28, 1971
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100+ Inspirational Elon Musk Quotes: Leading With Tenacity

Elon Musk, a name synonymous with innovation and daring ventures, has captivated the world with his extraordinary vision and relentless pursuit of the impossible.

He is not just a tech mogul or an entrepreneur; he is a visionary whose ideas have the potential to reshape the future of humanity. Musk’s journey from co-founding PayPal to leading companies like SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and The Boring Company has been nothing short of remarkable.

One of the remarkable aspects of Elon Musk’s persona is his ability to distill complex ideas and grand visions into concise, thought-provoking quotes.

These quotes not only offer a glimpse into his visionary mind but also serve as a source of inspiration for countless individuals around the world. In this blog, we’ll delve into some of the best quotes by Elon Musk, exploring their significance and the profound impact they have had on technology, business, and our collective imagination.

From discussing the future of space exploration and electric vehicles to delving into the intricacies of artificial intelligence and renewable energy, Elon Musk’s quotes cover a wide spectrum of topics.

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a technology enthusiast, or simply someone in search of inspiration, Musk’s words are bound to leave you intrigued and motivated.

So, join us on this journey as we unlock the mind of Elon Musk through his most inspirational and thought-provoking quotes. Let’s explore the wisdom, innovation, and audacity that define the man who aims to take humanity to the stars and revolutionize the way we live here on Earth.

• “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
• “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”
• “I’d like to die on Mars, just not on impact.”
• “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
• “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.”
• “If something is important enough, you should try. Even if you – the probable outcome is failure.”
• “Great companies are built on great products.”
• “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.”
• “The future of humanity is going to bifurcate in two directions: Either it’s going to become multi-planetary, or it’s going to remain confined to one planet and eventually there’s going to be an extinction event.”
• “You want to have a future where you’re expecting things to be better, not one where you’re expecting things to be worse.”
• “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”
• “Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.”
• “I think it’s possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”
• “I do think there is a good framework for thinking. It is physics. You know the sort of first principles reasoning.”
• “The thing that’s worth doing is trying to improve our understanding of the world and gain a better appreciation of the universe and not to worry too much about there being no meaning.”

These quotes provide a glimpse into Elon Musk’s visionary thinking, determination, and his passion for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the realms of technology and space exploration.

• “The most powerful thing we can do is inspire each other.”
• “I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.”
• “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.”
• “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.”
• “The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst. It sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I’d be super-duper bored. I like high intensity.”
• “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.”
• “I think we are at the dawn of a new era in commercial space exploration.”
• “It’s important that we attempt to extend life beyond Earth. I think we’ve got a pretty good shot at it.”
• “I’d like to die on Mars, but not on impact.”
• “My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.”
• “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.”
• “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.”
• “I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.”

These quotes continue to reflect Elon Musk’s unique perspective on innovation, ambition, and his unrelenting commitment to shaping a future that’s marked by progress and possibility.

• “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 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 the best way to attract venture capital is to try and come up with a demonstration of whatever product or service it is and ideally take that as far as you can. Just see if you can sell that to real customers and start generating some momentum. The further along you can get with that, the more likely you are to get funding.”
• “Life is too short for long-term grudges.”
• “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences.”
• “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.”
• “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.”
• “It’s very important to like the people you work with, otherwise life [and] your job is gonna be quite miserable.”
• “It is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”
• “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.”

These quotes provide further insight into Elon Musk’s leadership philosophy, work ethic, and his belief in the importance of constant improvement and innovation.

• “The most valuable thing I own is a two-dollar bill signed by [former Secretary of Treasury] Bob Rubin. That’s really cool.”
• “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 always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don’t believe in the whole thing of just using other people’s money. I don’t think that’s right. I’m not going to ask other people to invest in something if I’m not prepared to do so myself.”
• “I’m interested in things that change the world or that affect the future and wondrous, new technology where you see it, and you’re like, ‘Wow, how did that even happen? How is that possible?'”
• “I think the high-tech industry is used to developing new things very quickly. It’s the Silicon Valley way of doing business: You either move very quickly and you work on big ideas, or you get left behind.”
• “I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.”
• “I would like to be remembered as someone who was useful to the world and made a difference.”
• “You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.”

These quotes capture Elon Musk’s philosophy on business, innovation, and his unwavering dedication to pushing the boundaries of technology and human achievement.

• “I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company.”
• “I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.”
• “I want to die on Mars. Just not on impact.”
• “I think the value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question.”
• “If you want to grow a giant redwood, you need to make sure the seeds are ok, nurture the sapling, and work out what might potentially stop it from growing all the way along. Anything that breaks it at any point stops that growth.”

These quotes reflect Elon Musk’s deep commitment to his work, his relentless pursuit of ambitious goals, and his unique perspective on the importance of innovation and perseverance in the face of challenges.

• “It’s all about making a product that people really love. If you don’t make a product that people love, then you’re screwed.”
• “Really pay attention to negative feedback and solicit it, particularly from friends. … Hardly anyone does that, and it’s incredibly helpful.”
• “Work like hell. I mean, you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success.”
• “Don’t confuse education with schooling. I didn’t go to Harvard, but people who work for me did.”
• “I’m a Silicon Valley guy. I just think people from Silicon Valley can do anything.”
• “The longer you wait to fire someone, the longer it has been since you should have fired them.”
• “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.”

These quotes showcase Elon Musk’s determination, work ethic, and his belief in the transformative power of innovation and hard work. They provide valuable insights into his entrepreneurial mindset and approach to tackling ambitious projects.

• “I’d like to be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.”
• “I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company.”

These quotes continue to highlight Elon Musk’s passion for innovation, his dedication to his work, and his vision for a future that is shaped by technology and exploration.

• “I don’t create companies for the sake of creating companies, but to get things done.”

These quotes offer further insight into Elon Musk’s mindset, work ethic, and his visionary approach to tackling complex challenges and pioneering innovative solutions.

These quotes provide further insight into Elon Musk’s philosophy on business, innovation, and his unyielding determination to make a lasting impact on humanity through his ventures.

These quotes showcase Elon Musk’s passion for innovation, his dedication to his work, and his vision for a future that is shaped by technology and exploration.

These quotes offer further insight into Elon Musk’s passion for innovation, his dedication to his work, and his vision for a future that is shaped by technology and exploration.

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30 Best Elon Musk Quotes With Image

1. Pushing the boundaries: Elon Musk is known for his ambitious goals and his determination to push the boundaries of what is considered possible. Throughout the book, it becomes clear that Musk's relentless pursuit of his vision for the future has been a key driver of his success. He has shown that by setting audacious goals and refusing to accept limits, it is possible to make significant advancements in technology and change entire industries.

2. Entrepreneurial spirit : Musk's journey is a testament to the power of the entrepreneurial spirit. From his early ventures in the tech industry to his current role as the CEO of multiple groundbreaking companies, Musk has consistently demonstrated an ability to identify opportunities and create innovative solutions. The book highlights how his fearlessness in tackling tough challenges and his unwavering belief in his ideas have enabled him to build and lead successful businesses.

3. A long-term vision: Musk is known for his focus on long-term goals rather than short-term gains. He has a clear vision of where he wants to take his companies and is willing to make bold investments and sacrifice profitability in the pursuit of that vision. The book emphasizes the importance of having a clear long-term plan and the courage to stay committed to it, even in the face of adversity or setbacks.

4. The power of innovation: Musk's companies have revolutionized industries through their innovative approaches. Whether it's the electric car industry with Tesla or the space industry with SpaceX, Musk has shown that disruptive innovation can reshape entire sectors. The book explores how Musk's commitment to pushing the boundaries of technology and his relentless pursuit of innovation have been key factors in his success.

5. Balancing risk and reward: Musk is no stranger to risk-taking, and the book highlights the importance of balancing risks and rewards. Throughout his career, Musk has taken on enormous challenges and made high-stakes bets. While not all of his ventures have been successful, the book emphasizes how Musk's willingness to take calculated risks has allowed him to achieve remarkable accomplishments and make a lasting impact in the worlds of business and technology.

Ashlee Vance

Introduction

5 key lessons from elon musk, elon musk related book summaries, readers also enjoyed, 30 best elon musk quotes, related quotes.

Quotes from famous People

100 Best Quotes from Elon Musk

Table of Contents

Elon Musk Biography: Visionary Entrepreneur and Innovator

Elon Musk, a name synonymous with groundbreaking technological advancements, is a visionary entrepreneur, inventor, and business magnate. Born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk’s journey has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Early Life and Education

Musk’s relentless pursuit of knowledge began at a young age. He moved to the United States to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics. He later pursued a Ph.D. at Stanford University, but his entrepreneurial spirit led him to create world-changing companies instead.

Co-Founder of PayPal

In the late ’90s, Musk co-founded X.com, which eventually became PayPal, revolutionizing online payments. PayPal’s success laid the foundation for his future ventures.

SpaceX: Pioneering Space Exploration

In 2002, Musk founded SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.), with the audacious goal of reducing space transportation costs and making life multi-planetary. SpaceX achieved numerous milestones, including reusable rockets and plans for Mars colonization.

Tesla: Revolutionizing the Automotive Industry

Musk joined Tesla Motors in 2004 and transformed the electric vehicle industry. Tesla’s innovative electric cars, solar energy solutions, and battery technology have reshaped the automotive landscape and sustainability efforts.

SolarCity, Neuralink, and The Boring Company

Musk’s endeavors don’t stop there. He co-founded SolarCity to promote sustainable energy, launched Neuralink to advance brain-computer interface technology, and founded The Boring Company to address urban transportation challenges with underground tunnels.

Visionary and Philanthropist

Elon Musk’s impact extends beyond business. His advocacy for renewable energy and passion for innovation drive his philanthropic efforts, from addressing climate change to promoting solar energy adoption.

Musk’s relentless pursuit of ambitious goals, from sustainable energy to space colonization, has made him a global icon. His work epitomizes the spirit of innovation and ambition, inspiring countless individuals to dream big and reach for the stars.

Elon Musk Quotes: Wisdom for a Remarkable Life”

Elon Musk, the modern-day visionary and entrepreneur, has not only reshaped industries but also shared profound insights about life, innovation, and the pursuit of greatness. His quotes are a treasure trove of inspiration and motivation, offering valuable lessons for those seeking to make their mark in the world. In this collection, we delve into Elon Musk’s most compelling quotes on ambition, perseverance, and the boundless potential of the human spirit. These Elon Musk quotes are a guiding light for anyone on a journey to achieve the extraordinary.

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

2. “Don’t confuse schooling with education. I didn’t go to Harvard, but the people that work for me did.” – Elon Musk Ezoic

3. Constantly think about how you could be doing things better.

4. “Persistence is very important. you should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” Elon Musk Ezoic

5. “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.” – Elon Musk

6. (Physics is) a good framework for thinking. … Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.

7. “I like the word ‘autopilot’ more than I like the word ‘self-driving.’ Self-driving sounds like it’s going to do something you don’t want it to do. ‘Autopilot’ is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars.” Ezoic

8. “If we drive down the cost of transportation in space, we can do great things.”

9. “Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.” – Elon Musk

10. “In order for us to have a future that’s exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we’re a space-bearing civilization.”

11. “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” Elon Musk Ezoic

12. “When you struggle with a problem, that’s when you understand it.” –Elon Musk

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

14. “I really do encourage other manufacturers to bring electric cars to market. It’s a good thing, and they need to bring it to market and keep iterating and improving and make better and better electric cars, and that’s what going to result in humanity achieving a sustainable transport future. I wish it was growing faster than it is.” – Elon Musk

15. “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.” – Elon Musk Ezoic

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

17. “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.” -Elon Musk

18. “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.” – Elon Musk Quotes

19. “I love music. It makes my heart sing.”

20. “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.” Ezoic

21. My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.

22. “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.” —Elon Musk

23. “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.” – Elon Musk

24. “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” — Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, Inc. Ezoic

25. “If the rules are such that you can’t make progress, then you have to fight the rules.”

26. “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.” — Elon Musk

27. “If the rules are such that you can’t make progress, then you have to fight the rules.” – Elon Musk

28. “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” – Elon Musk Ezoic

29. “I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.”

30. “I take the position that I’m always to some degree wrong, and the aspiration is to be less wrong.”

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

32. 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.” — Elon Musk

33. “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.” Ezoic

34. “You have to say, ‘Well, why did it succeed where others did not?’” – Elon Musk

35. “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact”

36. “Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.” – Elon Musk

37. “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”

38. “I’d like to dial it back 5% or 10% and try to have a vacation that’s not just email with a view.” Elon Musk Ezoic

39. “Disruptive technology where you really have a big technology discontinuity… tends to come from new companies.”

40. “You have to say, ‘Well, why did it succeed where others did not?’”

41. “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

42. “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But a brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.”

43. “Let’s just skip original video games & movies & go straight to the sequel” Ezoic

44. “I take the position that I’m always to some degree wrong, and the aspiration is to be less wrong.” Elon Musk

45. “And we need things in life that are exciting and inspiring. It can’t just be about solving some awful problem. There have to be reasons to get up in the morning.” – Elon Musk

46. “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.” – Elon Musk

47. “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then – probability will occur.” – Elon Musk

48. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company.” – Elon Musk Ezoic

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

50. “Everything I want is on it’s way to me now.”

51. “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.” – Elon Musk

52. “Someone suggested changing Dogecoin fees based on phases of the moon, which is pretty awesome haha”

53. 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. Ezoic

54. “Where are the aliens?’ Really odd that we see no sign of them. Btw, please don’t mention the pyramids. Stacking stone blocks is not evidence of an advanced civilization. The rumor that I’m building a spaceship to get back to my home planet Mars is totally untrue. The ancient Egyptians were amazing, but if aliens built the pyramids, they would’ve left behind a computer or something.”

55. “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.” – Elon Musk

56. “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 other people are putting in 40 hour workweeks and you’re putting in 100 hour workweeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing, you know that you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.”

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

58. “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.” Ezoic

59. “If other people are putting in 40-hour workweeks and you’re putting in 100-hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing, you know that you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.” Elon Musk

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

61. “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.” – Elon Musk

62. “Great initial conversation with @elonmusk tonight. Teams are now talking; exploring opportunities. Next steps soon to follow.”

63. “I say something, and then it usually happens. Maybe not on schedule, but it usually happens.” – Elon Musk Ezoic

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

65. “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” – Elon Musk

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

67. “Passion and purpose scale – always have, always will.” – Elon Musk

68. “My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.” Ezoic

69. “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.”

70. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

71. “No matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder. ” – Elon Musk

72. 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, SpaceX.

73. “Dubai is a safe place, and I never came across anything to worry about.” Ezoic

74. “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” – Elon Musk

75. “People underestimate that I’m the world’s first trillionaire. When I say this people go, ‘Oh he’s not that rich.’ I am literally the world’s first trillionaire Elon Musk, I win.”

76. “Goods & services are the real economies, any form of money is simply the accounting thereof”

77. “Work like hell. I mean you just have to put in 80 to 100 hour weeks every week. [This] improves the odds of success.” – Elon Musk

78. “Talent is extremely important. It’s like a sports team; the team that has the best individual player will often win, but then there’s a multiplier from how those players work together and the strategy they employ.” Ezoic

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

80. “It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.”

81. “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.”

82. “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”

83. “I don’t believe in process. In fact, when I interview a potential employee and he or she says that ‘it’s all about the process,’ I see that as a bad sign. 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. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.” – Elon Musk Ezoic

84. “It’s Only Impossible If You Don’t Try.”

85. “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.” – Elon Musk

86. “I would just question things… It would infuriate my parents… That I wouldn’t just believe them when they said something ’cause I’d ask them why. And then I’d consider whether that response made sense given everything else I knew.”

87. “My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.” – Elon Musk

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

89. “I give thanks that I am rich, well, and happy.” Ezoic

90. It is important that people look forward to coming to work in the morning and enjoy working.”

91. “I expect lavish abundance every day in every way.”

92. “No matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder. ”–Elon Musk

93. “Optimism, pessimism, f*ck that – we’re going to make it happen.”

94. “I’ve actually not read any books on time management.” Elon Musk

95. Focus on signal over noise. Don’t waste time on stuff that doesn’t actually make things better.” – Elon Musk Ezoic

96. “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.”

97. “Work every waking hour.” – Elon Musk

98. “I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don’t believe in the whole thing of just using other people’s money. I don’t think that’s right. I’m not going to ask other people to invest in something if I’m not prepared to do so myself.” – Elon Musk

99. “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” Elon Musk

100. “I am worthy of an abundant life.”

101. “Focus on signal over noise. Don’t waste time on stuff that doesn’t actually make things better.” Elon Musk

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Elon Musk Biography by Walter Isaacson Summary

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We offer you a deeper guide, summaries, and analysis of Walter Isaacson's book " Elon Musk Biography by Walter Isaacson ," a bestselling book that delves into the true life of Elon Musk, the bullies, beaten, relationship challenges, struggles, and leadership style that propelled him to success but also sparked controversy. In this summary and analysis book, you will find: Background information about the author Background information about the book All chapter summaries Comprehensive analyses And a lot more. Click the Buy Now button to get your copy now.

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58 of the Most Inspiring Elon Musk Quotes

Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, Africa in 1971. As a child, Musk had so many daydreams about inventing things that he often became lost in his daydreams. Aside from being a dreamer, he displayed talents in entrepreneurship and technology. Elon Musk actually created a video game at the age of 12 and sold to a computer magazine.

Elon left his birthplace because he believed that there would be greater economic opportunities for him in the United States. He attended a university in Canada for a while but then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, there he received his bachelor’s in economics and physics. In the 1990s, Musk founded companies online such as Zip2 and X.com. Zip2 provided maps to online newspapers and X.com later became PayPal.

In the early 2000s, Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) so that he could make more affordable rockets. SpaceX actually developed the Dragon spacecraft, this spacecraft is used to deliver to the International Space Station (ISS). In 2004, Musk became one of the founders of Tesla Motors alongside Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.

In 2013, Elon proposed a faster way of transportation that he called the Hyperloop. He claimed the Hyperloop would only cost around six million and would travel at 760 miles per hour. Between managing SpaceX and Tesla, Musk said he had no time for the development of the Hyperloop.

Elon has made stunning contributions to society already and he’s still in his 40’s so he has much left to share with the world. Here are some of the most inspiring quotes from him to inspire your week!

Elon Musk Quotes

• “I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary” – Elon Musk
• “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk
• “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.” – Elon Musk
• “What makes innovative thinking happen?… I think it’s really a mindset. You have to decide.” – Elon Musk
• “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time. Sometimes it will be ahead, other times it will be behind. But brand is simply a collective impression some have about a product.” – Elon Musk
• “Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.” – Elon Musk
• “If something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor” – Elon Musk
• 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.” – Elon Musk
• “You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.” – Elon Musk
• “I’ve actually not read any books on time management.” – Elon Musk
• “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their *ss-covering.” – Elon Musk
• “I’m a Silicon Valley guy. I just think people from Silicon Valley can do anything.” – Elon Musk
• “Patience is virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson” – Elon Musks
• “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.” – Elon Musk
• “You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve” – Elon Musk
• “I would just question things… It would infuriate my parents… That I wouldn’t just believe them when they said something ’cause I’d ask them why. And then I’d consider whether that response made sense given everything else I knew.” – Elon Musk
• “I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company.” – Elon Musk
• “If you had to buy a new plane every time you flew somewhere, it would be incredibly expensive.” – Elon Musk
• “Trying to build a company is like baking a cake, you have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion” – Elon Musk
• “I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact.” – Elon Musk
• “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.” – Elon Musk
• “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.” – 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
• “There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.” – Elon Musk
• “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time” – Elon Musk
• “It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.” – 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.” – Elon Musk
• “My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.” – Elon Musk
• “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.” – Elon Musk
• “I had so many people try to talk me out of starting a rocket company, it was crazy.” – Elon Musk
• “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 out” – Elon Musk
• “Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.” – Elon Musk
• “Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold.” – Elon Musk
• “I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.” – Elon Musk
• “I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don’t believe in the whole thing of just using other people’s money. I don’t think that’s right. I’m not going to ask other people to invest in something if I’m not prepared to do so myself.” – Elon Musk
• “You have to be pretty driven to make it happen. Otherwise, you will just make yourself miserable.” – Elon Musk
• “I think life on earth must be about more than just solving problems. It’s got to be inspiring, even if it is vicarious” – Elon Musk
• “I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” – Elon Musk
• “I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.” – Elon Musk
• “I say something, and then it usually happens. Maybe not on schedule, but it usually happens.” – Elon Musk
• “Starting and growing a business is as much about the innovation, drive, and determination of the people behind it as the product they sell.” – Elon Musk
• “You want to have a future where you’re expecting things to be better, not one where you’re expecting things to be worse.” – Elon Musk
• “If the rules are such that you can’t make progress, then you have to fight the rules” – Elon Musk
• “We’re running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere… can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.” – Elon Musk
• “It is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” – Elon Musk
• “Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.” – Elon Musk
• “There are really two things that have to occur in order for a new technology to be affordable to the mass market. One is you need economies of scale. The other is you need to iterate on the design. You need to go through a few versions.” – Elon Musk
• “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” – Elon Musk
• “I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you can do things better and question yourself” – Elon Musk
• “Self-driving cars are the natural extension of active safety and obviously something we should do.” – Elon Musk
• “If you need inspiration, don’t do it.” – Elon Musk
• “I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.” – Elon Musk
• “Talent is extremely important. It’s like a sports team, the team that has the best individual player will often win, but then there’s a multiplier from how those players work together and the strategy they employ.” – Elon Musk
• “Some people doesn’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster” – Elon Musk
• “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.” – Elon Musk
• “The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst. It sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I’d be super-duper bored. I like high intensity.” – Elon Musk
• “As much as possible, avoid hiring MBAs. MBA programs don’t teach people how to create companies.” – Elon Musk
• “We knew it could be done. It was a question of how hard it would be and how long it would take us to sort it out” – Elon Musk

Another fascinating deep thinker is Naval Ravikant – be sure to check out our post about him.

Elon Musk Video – Joe Rogan Experience #1169

If you want to see how Elon’s brain works, this extended interview is quite a treat. Elon discusses many topics with Joe Rogan including electric vehicles, the future of civilization and SpaceX.

As of this writing, this video has been viewed nearly 40 million times – it’s definitely worth a watch!

Our amazing collection of Joe Rogan Quotes is worth a read too!

Besides being one of the richest people on Earth, Elon Musk has also used his money and resources to aid the human race in survival. What he is trying to accomplish with SpaceX is to eventually entertain the possibility of the human race being a multi-planet species. He believes that in order for human life to survive, we need to become a multi-planet species.

Elon Musk is without a doubt smart, inspirational and motivational to people all over the world. Some of these quotes may provide you with the inspiration you need to become a daydreamer like Elon Musk himself.

Related: Jeff Bezos Quotes

Image Credit: The Royal Society, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I’m Alice Judy and AnQuotes is a fun hobby for me. We know that everyone loves a great quote and our mission here is simple – to be the best and most interesting quote site in the world! If you have quotes you would like us to cover, please contact us.

Related posts:

• 70 Fascinating Quotes About Perception
• 20 Inspirational Joe Rogan Quotes
• The 40 Most Inspiring Jeff Bezos Quotes
• 35 Of The Most Interesting and Funny Jay Leno Quotes

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110 Most Inspiring Elon Musk Quotes For Future Entrepreneurs

By Author Kirsten Hill

Categories Quotes by Author

Check out this great list of Elon Musk Quotes, that will definitely inspire you to think outside of the box.

10 Best Elon Musk Quotes Of All Times

1. “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour.” ― Elon Musk

2. “It is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.” ― Elon Musk

3. “Constantly seek criticism. A well thought out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold.” ― Elon Musk

4. “The first step is to establish that something is possible then probability will occur.” ― Elon Musk

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

6. “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.” ― Elon Musk

7. “You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.” ― Elon Musk

8. “One of the really tough things is figuring out what questions to ask. Once you figure out the question, then the answer is relatively easy.” ― Elon Musk 

9. “Every person in your company is a vector. Your progress is determined by the sum of all vectors.  ” ― Elon Musk

10. “Constantly think about how you could be doing things better.” ― Elon Musk

See also: Andrew Tate Quotes That Will Spark Your Inner Winner

Motivational Elon Musk Quotes

1. “You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve” ― Elon Musk

2. “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.” ― Elon Musk

3. “No, I don’t ever give up. I’d have to be dead or completely incapacitated” ― Elon Musk

4. “I could go and buy one of the islands in the

Bahamas and turn it into my personal fiefdom, but I am much more interested in trying to build and create a new company.” ― Elon Musk

See also: 170 New Job Quotes To Inspire Your New Beginning

5. “I take the position that I’m always to some degree wrong, and the aspiration is to be less wrong.” ― Elon Musk

6. “Stop being patient and start asking yourself, how do I accomplish my 10-year plan in 6 months? You will probably fail but you will be a lot further ahead of the person who simply accepted it was going to take 10 years.” ― Elon Musk

7. “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? What inspires you? What do you love about the future?” ― Elon Musk

8. “I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” ― Elon Musk

9. “The most entertaining outcome is the most likely.” ― Elon Musk

10. “Don’t confuse schooling with education. I didn’t go to Harvard but the people that work for me did.” ― Elon Musk, Elon Musk

Inspirational Elon Musk Quotes

1. “If you need inspiration, don’t do it.” ― Elon Musk

2. “It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.” ― Elon Musk

3. “Whatever area that you get into, given that, even if you’re the best of the best, there’s always a chance of failure. So, I think it’s important that you really like whatever you’re doing. If you don’t like it, life is too short. And also, if you like what you are doing, you think about it even when you are not working. It’s something your mind drawn to. And if you don’t like it, you just really can’t make it work I think.” ― Elon Musk

4. “I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I just try to think about the future and not be sad” ― Elon Musk

5. “Working hard to make useful products & services for your fellow humans is deeply morally good.” ― Elon Musk

6. “If you punish people too much for failure, then they will respond accordingly and the innovation you will get will be very incrementalist. Nobody’s going to try anything bold for fear of getting fired or punished in some way. The risk/reward must be balanced, in favor of making bold moves.” ― Elon Musk

7. “Education is basically downloading data and algorithms into your brain.” ― Elon Musk

8. “If something is important enough, you do it even if the odds aren’t in your favor.” ― Elon Musk

See also: 150 Discipline Quotes To Unlock Your Potential And Success

9. “Never chase the next hot thing. Stop trying to chase the wave. You will never catch it. You always for the most part find out about that stuff too late. Instead, do what you are really passionate about, what you really love. That will position you before the wave even hits, and you will find out about whatever it is before the wave starts, before it gets hot, and that is how you take advantage.” ― Elon Musk

10. “If the rules are such that you can’t make progress, then you have to fight the rules.” ― Elon Musk, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

11. “Buy & hold stock in companies where you love the product roadmap, sell where you don’t.” ― Elon Musk

12. “To anyone I’ve offended I just wanna say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars on a rocket ship…Did you also think I was gonna be a chill normal dude?” ― Elon Musk

13. “I think I have a pretty deep understanding of what Money actually is on a practical day to day basis because of paypal. right now, the money system for practical purposes is really a bunch of heterogeneous mainframes running old COBOL. Literally.” ― Elon Musk

14. “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. There’s certain special skills, especially in advanced engineering, that are the limiting factor in creating new companies; we send these people home after training them in our graduate schools.” ― Elon Musk

15. “With automation comes abundance.” ― Elon Musk

16. “There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.” ― Elon Musk

See also: 100 Growth Mindset Quotes For Those Who Want To Succeed

17. “You have to be pretty driven to make it happen. Otherwise, you will just make yourself miserable.” ― Elon Musk

18. “You must be willing to lose it all, but be willing to keep going into the future.” ― Elon Musk

19. “There’s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.” ― Elon Musk

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

Famous Elon Musk Quotes

1. “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.” ― Elon Musk

2. “There needs to be an intersection of the set of people who wish to go, and the set of people who can afford to go…and that intersection of sets has to be enough to establish a self-sustaining civilization. My rough guess is that for a half-million dollars, there are enough people that could afford to go and would want to go. But it’s not going to be a vacation jaunt. It’s going to be saving up all your money and selling all your stuff, like when people moved to the early American colonies…even at a million people you’re assuming an incredible amount of productivity per person, because you would need to recreate the entire industrial base on Mars. ” ― Elon Musk

3. “One of the biggest mistakes we made was trying to automate things that are super easy for a person to do, but super hard for a robot to do.” ― Elon Musk

4. “They were building a Ferrari for every launch, when it was possible that a Honda Accord might do the trick.” ― Elon Musk, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

5. “Life needs to be more than just solving problems every day. You need to wake up and be excited about the future.” ― Elon Musk

6. “It’s pretty hard to get to another star system. Alpha Centauri is four light years away, so if you go at 10 per cent of the speed of light, it’s going to take you 40 years, and that’s assuming you can instantly reach that speed, which isn’t going to be the case. You have to accelerate. You have to build up to 20 or 30 per cent and then slow down, assuming you want to stay at Alpha Centauri and not go zipping past. It’s just hard. With current life spans, you need generational ships. You need antimatter drives, because that’s the most mass-efficient. It’s doable, but it’s super slow.” ― Elon Musk

7. “I really like computer games, but then if I made really great computer games, how much effect would that have on the world.” ― Elon Musk, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

8. “Science is discovering the essential truths about what exists in the Universe, engineering is about creating things that never existed” ― Elon Musk

9. “America is the spirit of human exploration distilled.” ― Elon Musk

10. “I was raised by books. Books, and then my parents” ― Elon Musk

Funny Elon Musk Quotes

1. “I think it would be great to be born on Earth and die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact.” ― Elon Musk

2. “The idea of lying on a beach as my main thing just sounds like the worst. It sounds horrible to me. I would go bonkers. I would have to be on serious drugs. I’d be super-duper bored. I like high intensity.” ― Elon Musk

3. “When I was a little kid, I was really scared of the dark. But then I came to understand, dark just means the absence of photons in the visible wavelength–400 to 700 nanometers. Then I thought, well, it’s really silly to be afraid of a lack of photons. Then I wasn’t afraid of the dark anymore after that.” ― Elon Musk

4. “I mean, I think that if people are concerned about volatility, they should definitely not buy our stock. I’m not here [on an earnings call] to convince you to buy [Tesla] stock. Do not buy it if volatility is scary. There you go.” ― Elon Musk

5. “Apparently, some customs agencies are saying they won’t allow shipment of anything called a “Flamethrower”. To solve this, we are renaming it “Not a Flamethrower”.  ― Elon Musk

6. “Who controls the memes, controls the Universe.”  ― Elon Musk

7. “If life is a video game, the graphics are great, but the plot is confusing & the tutorial is way too long.”  ― Elon Musk

8. “I admit to judging books by their cover.”  ― Elon Musk

9. “And no, I am not an alien. But I used to be one.”  ― Elon Musk

10. “You have more power than the president had 20 years ago.”  ― Elon Musk

Elon Musk Quotes About Life

1. “I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.” ― Elon Musk

2. “I came to the conclusion that we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask. Really, the only thing tht makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.” ― Elon Musk

3. “In terms of the Internet, it’s like humanity acquiring a collective nervous system. Whereas previously we were more like a [?], like a collection of cells that communicated by diffusion. With the advent of the Internet, it was suddenly like we got a nervous system. It’s a hugely impactful thing.” ― Elon Musk

4. “If you buy a ticket to hell, it isn’t fair to blame hell.” ― Elon Musk

See also: 120 Accountability Quotes For The Most Responsible Ones

5. “I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness, to make sure it continues into the future” ― Elon Musk

6. “I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there. ” ― Elon Musk

7. “If humanity is to become multi-planetary, the fundamental breakthrough that needs to occur in rocketry is a rapidly and completely reusable rocket … achieving it would be on a par with what the Wright brothers did. It’s the fundamental thing that’s necessary for humanity to become a space-faring civilization. America would never have been colonized if ships weren’t reusable.” ― Elon Musk

8. “At its heart, wokeness is divisive, exclusionary, and hateful. It basically gives mean people a shield to be mean and cruel, armored in false virtue.” ― Elon Musk

9. “If something is important enough, you should try even if the probable outcome is failure.” ― Elon Musk

10. “My children didn’t choose to be born, I chose to have children. They owe me nothing, I owe them everything” ― Elon Musk

Elon Musk Quotes From Twitter And His Hot Takes

1. “Pronouns suck.” ― Elon Musk

2. “Goods & services are the real economy, any form of money is simply the accounting thereof.” ― Elon Musk

3. “Frankly, I love the negative feedback on this platform.” ― Elon Musk

4. “You are free to be your true self here.” ― Elon Musk

5. “You awake from a deep trance, step away from the phone to see your friends and family.” ― Elon Musk

6. “Don’t kill what you hate, Save what you love.” ― Elon Musk

7. “Those who attack space maybe don’t realize that space represents hope for so many people.” ― Elon Musk

8. “If you’re not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea.” ― Elon Musk

9. “Possessions weigh you down.” ― Elon Musk

10. “Laws are on one side, poets on the other.” ― Elon Musk

11. “Pop music has both literal & figurative Stockholm Syndrome.” ― Elon Musk

12. “thinking of quitting my jobs & becoming an influencer full-time wdyt” ― Elon Musk

13. “The duty of a leader is to serve their people, not for the people to serve them.” ― Elon Musk

14. “I am inspired by curiosity. That is what drives me. So let us expand the scope & scale of consciousness so that we may aspire to understand the Universe.” ― Elon Musk

15. “Time is the ultimate currency.” ― Elon Musk

16. “Fear is the mind-killer.” ― Elon Musk

17. “A social media platform’s policies are good if the most extreme 10% on left and right are equally unhappy.” ― Elon Musk

See also: 90 Choose Happiness Quotes To Encourage And Inspire You

18. “When space travel becomes as common as air travel, the future of civilization will be assured.” ― Elon Musk

19. “You don’t have a soul, you are a soul.” ― Elon Musk

20. “If you scare people enough, they will demand removal of freedom. This is the path to tyranny.” ― Elon Musk

Elon Musk Comments That Are Legendary

1. “Best way to fight misinformation is to respond with accurate information, not censorship.” ― Elon Musk

2. “The media is racist. For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians. Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America. Maybe they can try not being racist.” ― Elon Musk

3. “Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life.” ― Elon Musk

4. “I’m sort of worried that hey, civilization, if we don’t make enough people to at least sustain our numbers, perhaps increase a little bit, then civilization’s going to crumble.” ― Elon Musk

5. “I’ll say what I want to say, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.” ― Elon Musk

6. “Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone.” ― Elon Musk

7. “I’m talking about not having kids in the first place. That’s the problem.” ― Elon Musk

8. “All designs are wrong, it’s just a matter of how wrong.” ― Elon Musk

9. “If somebody wants to stay in their house, that’s great. They should be allowed to stay in their house, and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say that they cannot leave their house, and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom.” ― Elon Musk

10. “I love Twitter. How much is it?” ― Elon Musk

11. “I think there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multi-planetary in order to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen.” ― Elon Musk

12. “People are mistaken when they think that technology just automatically improves. It does not automatically improve. It only improves if a lot of people work very hard to make it better, and actually it will, I think, by itself degrade, actually. You look at great civilizations like Ancient Egypt, and they were able to make the pyramids, and they forgot how to do that. And then the Romans, they built these incredible aqueducts. They forgot how to do it.” ― Elon Musk

13. “It would be an incredible adventure. And life needs to be more than just solving every day problems. You need to wake up and be excited about the future.” ― Elon Musk

14. “The probability of death is quite high on the first [human] mission [to Mars].” ― Elon Musk

15. “AI is much more advanced than people realize. Humanity’s position on this planet depends on its intelligence, so if our intelligence is exceeded, it’s unlikely that we will remain in charge of the planet.” ― Elon Musk

16. “Everything works in PowerPoint; but if you have the physical item or some demonstration software, that’s much more convincing to people than a PowerPoint presentation or a business plan.” ― Elon Musk

17. “Only by breaking through to new paradigms of space travel will more than a handful of us ever get to Mars and make it a potentially livable place.” ― Elon Musk

18. “People should be traveling to Mars and doing it in our lifetime.” ― Elon Musk

19. “Even if there’s a zombie apocalypse, you’ll still be able to travel using the Tesla Supercharging system.” ― Elon Musk

20. “I’d rather be optimistic and wrong; than pessimistic and right.” ― Elon Musk

See also: 380 Positive Thought Of The Day Quotes To Empower You

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my ultimate collection of Elon Musk quotes, and that you have found some inspiration along the lines.

Elon Musk Didn’t Want His Latest Deposition Released. Here It Is.

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

Elon Musk was deposed last month over his role in allegedly promoting a false conspiracy theory that a 22-year-old Jewish man participated in a neo-Nazi brawl.

Musk tried to keep the deposition from going public, and perhaps for good reason: It did not go well for him.

“There’s some risk that what I say is incorrect, but one has to balance that against having a chilling effect on free speech in general, which would undermine the entire foundation of our democracy,” Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), said during the deposition.

The lawsuit against the billionaire, filed in October , alleges that Musk used his colossal social media platform to amplify a false far-right conspiracy theory linking 22-year-old Ben Brody to a brawl in Oregon between the neo-Nazi group Rose City Nationalists and the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist fight club . The brawl occurred during Oregon City’s first Pride Night Fest, when both groups came to disrupt the event and spew anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.

Brody wasn’t even in the same state when the June 24 brawl occurred. But his world was turned upside down when far-right X accounts, magnified by Musk, falsely identified him as a member of Rose City Nationalists (and an undercover federal agent) and posted his personal information online.

Musk amplified the conspiracy theory repeatedly to his more than 180 million followers, suggesting Brody was a fresh-faced federal agent pretending to be a neo-Nazi in a “false flag situation,” a phrase used to suggest a harmful event was deliberately set up to misrepresent a group or person.

“Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt) and another is maybe an Antifa member, but nonetheless a probable false flag situation,” Musk posted to X after Brody had been falsely identified as a Rose City Nationalists member. The post remains on X.

Brody said he and his family were forced to flee their home amid the fallout from Musk’s posts. He’s seeking more than $1 million in damages. The next court hearing is scheduled for April 22.

On March 27, Musk sat for a two-hour deposition with attorneys from both parties over Zoom. Following the testimony, Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, filed multiple emergency motions in an attempt to keep the deposition sealed.

“I’m asking that this transcript be marked as confidential,” Spiro said at the end of Musk’s deposition, according to the transcript. “That’s what I’m asking for, OK?”

Spiro’s efforts failed after a judge struck down his motions. Though video of the deposition has not been made public, HuffPost obtained a copy of the full transcript, which was made public Monday.

You can read Musk’s full testimony here.

During his deposition, Musk admitted he has a “limited understanding” of the lawsuit against him, said he thought Brody’s attorney was the one suing him, and revealed he did no research in determining whether Brody was involved in the brawl after seeing the accusations on X.

Musk also made broader admissions about his failures with X — which has plummeted in value since his takeover in 2022 — saying he “may have done more to financially impair” the social media site than help it. Musk also confirmed that he once used a burner account on X seemingly to role-play as his toddler son.

“I’m guilty of many self-inflicted wounds,” Musk testified.

‘Actually, Mr. Musk, I’m An Attorney. Did You Know That?’

From the outset of the deposition, Spiro traded barbs with Brody’s attorney, Mark Bankston, as Musk attempted to answer basic questions about the case.

“Do you think you did anything wrong to Ben Brody?” asked Bankston, who’s based in Houston.

Spiro interjected, saying this “isn’t a question you’re allowed to ask by the court.”

It was the start of what would be a contentious back-and-forth between two high-profile attorneys. Spiro, who has represented celebrities such as Jay-Z and Megan Thee Stallion, previously won a defamation case for Musk after the billionaire called a man who helped rescue children trapped in a cave in Thailand a “pedo guy” in 2018.

“You keep filing these silly, frivolous shake-down cases, I’ll keep trying to think of Texas lawyers to bring to your depositions,” Spiro told Bankston.

Bankston, of the Texas law firm Farrar & Ball, previously represented two Sandy Hook parents who won $45 million in damages against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones after Jones spent years falsely claiming the 2012 school shooting never happened.

Spiro did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Bankston declined to comment.

Throughout his testimony, Musk showed little understanding about the lawsuit he was testifying for, and even said he believed it was Bankston — not Brody — who was suing him.

“I think you’re the one suing,” Musk told Bankston, according to the transcript.

“Actually, Mr. Musk, I’m an attorney,” Bankston explained. “Did you know that? I’m an attorney representing Mr. Brody.”

Asked if Musk understood what the lawsuit was about, Musk admitted he had “a limited understanding of that — of what the lawsuit is about” but suggested again that this was simply a money grab by Brody’s attorney.

“My — what I want to think it’s really about is about you getting a lot of money,” said Musk, who paid $44 billion for Twitter in 2022 .

From An Anti-Semitic Account To Elon Musk

Musk learned of the conspiracy theory about Brody from what the lawsuit describes as a fringe X account with more than 30,000 followers that “features extreme rightwing memes, neo-Nazi apologia/nostalgia, juvenile and cringe-worthy attempts at bigoted humor, low effort bait tweets, delusional panics over lazy hoaxes, and a cavalcade of absurdly false information.”

“The account is the social media equivalent of gutter sludge,” the lawsuit says.

The anonymous account, named Dr Frensor, posted a photo of Brody with his personal information found on his college fraternity’s social media page. The caption on the photo of Brody read, “After graduation he plans to work for the government,” which Dr Frensor used to suggest Brody was at the brawl and a federal plant.

“Very odd,” Musk responded. As it goes whenever Musk interacts with a post on X, this one quickly went viral.

In his deposition, Musk was asked whether he’d seen other posts from the Dr Frensor account.

“I wasn’t trying to assess their credibility,” Musk responded.

Bankston showed Musk a meme Dr Frensor had posted the same day the account posted about Brody. More from the transcript:

Bankston : And here it says at the top, ‘Is this meme insensitive to Jewish persons?’ And then there’s a meme of the United Nations’ logo that says, “Founded in 1945 to end all wars, the United Nations. The world has been at war ever since.’ Do you know if you saw this? Musk : I have not seen this. B : Okay. Would this have triggered a red flag as to this person’s credibility? Spiro : Objection to form. M : I mean, I think it’s a dubious post, but it suggests anti-Semitism. B : Correct. … I think we all know it reflects anti-Semitism. I’m asking, does this trigger red flags to this person’s reliability? M : I would say, yes, it probably does.

Still, Musk defended his response to the anti-Semitic account.

“But if you’re suggesting that in order to reply to anyone, you have to scroll through all their posts, that would make it impossible to use the system,” he said of his website.

A Billionaire’s Fact-Checking Process

Contrary to his earlier statements, Musk suggested later on in the deposition that he researches discourse before he joins it.

“If you care about the truth, you have to go look about it,” Musk said.

Musk’s own testimony reveals he did little to seek out the truth.

“Would it be fair for me to say that, other than the tweets that you interacted with, you did not secure other information about this unmasked brawler?” Bankston asked at one point.

“I don’t recall securing other information,” Musk responded.

During his testimony, Musk criticized what he called the “traditional legacy news industry” while lauding X’s Community Notes, a website tool that allows users to add corrections or additional context to misleading or untrue posts.

Musk called Community Notes “the best system on the internet” for fact-checking, and said he tagged Community Notes in his post referencing Brody as a show of “good faith,” the transcript shows.

“And I think — I think I really did this in good faith, because I would not ask for a fact-check which is what I do by adding Community Notes,” Musk said, according to the transcript.

Musk did tag Community Notes in his post about Brody, but a note was never added to the false claim. The post remains on X today without a correction.

Musk was also asked about his interactions with posts on X, which can make an otherwise invisible post go instantly viral. Bankston pointed out that his post on X referring to a “college student who wants to join the govt” was seen more than a million times, according to X’s metrics.

Musk downplayed the number and argued that his post was merely a reply to someone else, which attracted less viewership than his own post would.

From the transcript:

Bankston : You do understand that the amount of people who saw this, who have viewed this, is equivalent to all 30 major league baseball stadiums filled to capacity? You wouldn’t dispute that? I mean, we’re talking over a million people. Spiro : Objection to form. Musk : Yeah, that’s actually – that may seem like a large number, but it is not compared to the fact – I believe there are something on the order of five to eight trillion views per year so a million is really – B : Not a big deal? M : – hit or miss, yeah. B : Not a big deal that this went out to that many people? M : Correct .

Musk’s ‘Self-Inflicted Wounds’

Over the course of his testimony, Musk acknowledged his lack of restraint in posting on X and the negative impact it’s had on his company.

He called them “self-inflicted wounds,” a reference to his own quote in Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography about him, though he says he hasn’t read it.

“I certainly — I would say that I — you know, I’m guilty of many self-inflicted wounds,” Musk testified.

Last year, Motherboard and other internet sleuths traced a bizarre account on X to Musk himself. The account, @ermnmusk, appeared to be role-playing as Musk’s toddler son.

“I will finally turn 3 on May 4th!” one post read.

“I wish I was old enough to go to nightclubs. They sound so fun,” read another.

Though the account’s name is not mentioned in the transcript, Monday’s court filing contained an exhibit of the @ermnmusk account that was shown to Musk during his testimony. In the filing, Bankston alleges that Musk deleted the account in February on the same day of the court’s discovery order.

Asked about the account by Bankston during the deposition, Musk confirmed it was his, but dismissed it as a “test account.”

“No, I would not use this account,” Musk testified. “It was just used for — for testing.”

Later in the deposition, Musk again reflected on those “self-inflicted wounds.”

“The — and going back to the sort of self-inflicted wounds, the Kevlar shoes, I think there’s — I’ve probably done — I may have done more to financially impair the company than to help it, but certainly I — I do not guide my posts by what is financially beneficial but what I believe is interesting or important or entertaining to the public,” he said.

A day after Brody had been falsely linked to neo-Nazis, the recent college graduate uploaded a video to Instagram begging for the harassment to stop.

“My family and I are just being harassed completely, and I would be more than happy to clear up any confusion if necessary,” Brody says in the video. “This is just so ridiculous and I just really can’t believe this is happening to me right now.”

Near the end of the deposition, Bankston asked Musk if he believed he owed it to Brody to be accurate. Musk said: “I aspire to be accurate no matter who the person is.”

“Do you think you lived up to that duty to Ben Brody or do you think you failed him?” Bankston asked.

“I don’t think — I don’t think — I don’t think he has been meaningfully harmed by this,” Musk replied.

Bankston pushed Musk on the question, leading to another argument between the two lawyers. Finally, Musk answered, reiterating his belief that he didn’t harm Brody.

“People are attacked all the time in the media, online media, social media, but it is rare that that actually has a meaningful negative impact on their life,” Musk testified.

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Elon Musk says he does not micromanage people but pays attention to detail

Elon musk, during an interview, said that he does not micromanage people but pays attention to detail. he added that smart people manage themselves..

Listen to Story

In a conversation with Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of Norway's wealth fund, Elon Musk, opened up about his approach of managing people and said that even though he believes in paying attention to details, he does not micromanage people. He said, "I wouldn’t call it micro management, it’s just insisting on attention to detail. If you’re trying to make a perfect product, then attention to detail is essential."

Musk also added that he believes in empowering smart people by setting clear goals and letting them find their own path to achieve them. "Smart people, they manage themselves," he said and explained that those who have talent and are intelligence can go and work anywhere. He added that the way to keep such people happy is to just set goals and let them decide how to achieve them.

"So I say, ‘Look, this is the goal we’re after and this is what we’re trying to achieve. If you agree with that goal, then let’s try to get it done,’" he added.

He clarified that while he typically allows autonomy, there are occasions when he steps in and asserts authority, stating, "Once in a while, you have to say, ‘Guys, you have to trust me on this one," he added.

On a related note, American journalist and author Walter Isaacson launched Musk's biography in September last year. The book had also shed light on Musk's management style and had quotes from people who had worked with him in the past.

SpaceX co-founder Tom Mueller, who worked with Musk for over 20 years, was quoted saying in the book that Musk didn’t like when people told him something wasn’t possible. He said that he learnt to never say no to the billionaire and always tell him that he will try. Later, if things didn’t work out, he would explain the reason to Musk.

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Best Moments From Elon Musk's Deposition He Doesn't Want You to Read

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Elon Musk’s recent deposition , made public in a transcript published by HuffPost on Monday, revealed several interesting details about the owner of X. The deposition also included several heated exchanges between Musk, his lawyer, and the plaintiff. We read the whole 108-page transcript and pulled the best moments.

This deposition is related to Musk’s tweets on the X platform, specifically pertaining to a 22-year-old Jewish man Ben Brody who is suing the billionaire. Brody alleges Musk contributed to a conspiracy theory about him. However, this public deposition explored wide-ranging topics about Musk’s life.

Brody’s attorney, Mark Bankston, peppered Musk and his longtime lawyer, Alex Spiro, with questions for nearly two hours. In the deposition, Musk confirms some of his strange alt accounts on X. Spiro specifically asked at one point to make this deposition confidential, though it clearly was made public this week.

Musk revealed in his deposition that he’s never read Walter Isaacson’s biography on him. Later on, Musk says he may have done more financial harm than good to the X platform . These quotes from Musk, who often comes up as “A” or “WITNESS” in the transcript, come alongside several heated exchanges, all occurring over Zoom.

Here are the best moments from Elon Musk’s deposition about his use of the X platform, and other parts of his life.

Starting Strong

To start off, Elon Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro wouldn’t even let the plaintiff get the first question off. Spiro threatened to end the deposition before it started.

Musk Discusses His Alts

Here we see Elon admit to using an alt as a “test account.” HuffPost revealed this account to be @ermnmusk . Musk references “baby smoke 9,000" as well, which appears to be a typo for @babysmurf9000 . Those two appear to be Elon’s alternate X accounts .

Wait, Which Lawsuit is This Again?

Elon Musk appeared to be confused about who Mr. Brody, the man suing him, actually is. Bankston asked Musk if he understood that he was a lawyer.

Let The Record Show Alex Spiro Does Not Care

Bankston kept reading a rule about what types of objections a defending lawyer can make. Spiro didn’t care and continued to interrupt the whole time.

Musk Admits to Financially Impairing X

Musk says he “may have done more to financially impair the company than to help it” at one point in the deposition. He’s defending that he doesn’t start controversy to boost engagement.

Reminder: Everyone Here is an Adult

Things got heated pretty early on. Bankston yelled at Musk (the witness) and Spiro to follow his rules. The defense had to remind Bankston to stay calm.

Explaining Memes

Elon describes a meme that’s just a kitten with a tin foil hat.

Looks Like a Donut

Elon makes a good point. Even if something looks like a donut, it could be a bagel.

Elon Has Left the Zoom Room

Elon abruptly left the Zoom at one point.

Musk Never Read His Own Biography

Musk reveals that, based on the advice from Walter Isaacson, never read his own biography.

Once Again, Everyone Here Is an Adult

Musk just started talking at one point, when no question was asked of him. The plaintiff asked Musk to wait for a question, and Spiro asked that Musk just be allowed to speak.

Musk and Spiro Wanted This to Be Confidential

At the end of this interview, Alex Spiro asked for this deposition to be confidential. However, the plaintiff argued that there had been no grounds for that. Then Spiro hopped off the Zoom call before any discussion could happen.

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Elon Musk Says Micromanagement Gets a Bad Rap and ‘Smart People’ Don’t Need Oversight

(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk is pushing back on his reputation as a micromanager. The best employees, he says, actually need little management.

“I wouldn’t call it micro management, it’s just insisting on attention to detail,” he said in an interview Monday with Nicolai Tangen, the chief executive of Norway’s wealth fund, which was streamed on Musk’s social media site, X. “If you’re trying to make a perfect product, then attention to detail is essential.”

Walter Isaacson’s biography on Musk depicted the billionaire obsessing over the most minute of decisions, from the design of the Cybertruck to where Twitter put its servers. Musk said on Monday that he hasn’t read Isaacson’s book about him, despite giving the author a front-row seat to how he simultaneously ran six companies over two years.

While most micro-managing bosses don’t consider their actions to be encroaching on employee autonomy, the majority of workers say they have had an overly involved boss during their careers, surveys  have found. And Musk is in good company with other demanding bosses like former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.

When asked about how to manage his best employees, Musk said: “Smart people, they manage themselves.” Intelligent and talented people can go and work anywhere,  he said, so the way to keep them them happy is to set out goals and let people figure out how to achieve them.

“So I say, ‘Look, this is the goal we’re after and this is what we’re trying to achieve. If you agree with that goal, then let’s try to get it done,’” Musk said, noting that he reserves the right to weigh in and take control when warranted. “Once in a while, you have to say, ‘Guys, you have to trust me on this one.”

Read More:  Why Twitter's Boss Is More Like Jack Welch Than You Think

--With assistance from Matthew Boyle.

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