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

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 would not sit waiting for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make something happen.

Never feel sorry for me, just teach me and watch me grow.

Most people have the wrong idea about me because I've been very private.

The ultimate verification of our religion consists of the changed lives to which it can point and for which it is responsible.

I have noticed that music, like solid matter, is essentially crystalline in structure.

The woman from the depths of her rags, a waif, a martyr — smiled. She must have a divine heart to be so tired and yet smile.

I make non-fiction partly because I'm not that good of a writer. My talent, if I have any, is in balancing, capturing and directing reality, rather than creating scenarios.

We owe thankfulness to God, not sour faces.

Sports teaches you very important lessons that are many and varied. It's probably the closest thing to the lessons we learned in fighting and warfare, about loyalty and growing up.

I don't have the recipe for happiness, but I think the engine is simply having the desire.