I started SpaceX with the expectation of failure.

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

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

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

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

I'm extremely confident that solar will be at least a plurality of power, and most likely a majority... in less than 20 years.

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

Optimism, pessimism, f**k that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.

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

Mars is the only place in the solar system where it's possible for life to become multi-planetarian.

My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.

I could never be your godAnd I don't even think I want the job anymore

Art... can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations.

There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.

We have so much patience with ourselves, why not borrow some of that and use it on others.

I hammer on a theme until I'm tired of it and the audience is tired of it.

He who strays discovers new paths.

Health, money. That's what people worried about in the 14th century as much as today. I find it so much more interesting than the supposed activities of kings, queens, generals.

Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds.

I just downloaded eleven hundred books onto my Kindle, and now I can’t lift it.

To think but nobly of my grandmother: Good wombs have borne bad sons.