Darwinism may be a fine theory in other contexts, but in startups, intelligent design works best.

Today's 'best practices' lead to dead ends; the best paths are new and untried.

The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.

I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.

The most successful businesses have an idea for the future that's very different from the present.

I do think Bitcoin is the first [encrypted money] that has the potential to do something like change the world.

Every business is successful exactly to the extent that it does something others cannot.

In the '30s, the Keynesian stuff worked at least in the sense that you could print money without inflation because there was all this productivity growth happening. That's not going to work today.

Under perfect competition, in the long run no company makes an economic profit.

The most fundamental reason that even businesspeople underestimate the importance of sales is the systematic effort to hide it at every level of every field in a world secretly driven by it.

Of the six people who started PayPal, four had built bombs in high school.

The more you concentrate on what you discover that you will be good for you to pursue, the more experienced you will be while doing it.

The paradox of challenges

We say of some things that they can't be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do--we do it all the time.

This workshop where ideals are manufactured--it seems to me it stinks of so many lies

The economics of the security world are all horribly, horribly nasty and are largely based on fear, intimidation and blackmail.

Rare indeed is the nature that does not become a little more intense when its own affairs come under discussion.

I'm still on the move, I'm getting better because I'm still studying. I still want to be a better horseman.

If I don't practice the way I should, then I won't play the way that I know I can.

[Harriet] hated math. She hated math with every bone in her body. She spent so much time hating it that she never had time to do it.

No exile at the South Pole or on the summit of Mont Blanc separates us more effectively from others than the practice of a hidden vice.