472 Quotes by elon musk

I'm reasonably optimistic about the future, especially the future of the United States - for the century, at least.

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

In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.

Let's think beyond the normal stuff and have an environment where that sort of thinking is encouraged and rewarded and where it's okay to fail as well. Because when you try new things, you try this idea, that idea... well a large number of them are not gonna work, and that has to be okay. If every time somebody comes up with an idea it has to be successful, you're not gonna get people coming up with ideas.

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.

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

It would take six months to get to Mars if you go there slowly, with optimal energy cost. Then it would take eighteen months for the planets to realign. Then it would take six months to get back, though I can see getting the travel time down to three months pretty quickly if America has the will.

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

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.