We have a strict 'no a-hole policy' at SpaceX. And we fire people they are. I mean, we give them a little bit of warning. But if they continue to be an a-hole, then they're fired.

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.

God knows the end from the beginning.

I pray every single moment of my life not on my knees but with my work. My prayer is to lift women to equality with men. Work and worship are one with me.

In some company it’s perfectly all right to prick your finger, but very bad form to finger your prick.

It is difficult to put words to the smell of decomposing human. It is dense and cloying, sweet but not flower-sweet. Halfway between rotting fruit and rotting meat.

When we experience the power of the Self, there is an absence of fear, there is no compulsion to control, and no struggle for approval or external power.

I thought I was raptured up into the air today; turns out, it was just my gas oven exploding.

I think that phrase is the most horrible phrase in the English language - 'I don't know.' It's terribly embarrassing.

Credibility is a leader's currency. With it, he or she is solvent; without it, he or she is bankrupt.

There are moments, particularly in times of stress, when haste does not make waste, when our snap judgments and first impressions can offer a much better means of making sense of the world.

Seeking chaos is at least one way to develop the skills and mindsets to tackle ambiguity.