Updated December 15, 2017
Every once in a while Elon Musk gets philosophical. Here is a compilation of his best philosophical quotes.
Feel free to let me know in the comments what your favorite quote is. Enjoy!
"It’s funny. Not everyone loves humanity. Either explicitly or implicitly, some people seem to think that humans are a blight on the Earth’s surface. They say things like, 'Nature is so wonderful; things are always better in the countryside where there are no people around.' They imply that humanity and civilisation are less good than their absence. But I’m not in that school. I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness, to make sure it continues into the future." (Sep, 2014 | Source)
"At our current rate of technological growth, humanity is on a path to be godlike in its capabilities. You could bicycle to Alpha Centauri in a few hundred thousand years, and that’s nothing on an evolutionary scale. If an advanced civilisation existed at any place in this galaxy, at any point in the past 13.8 billion years, why isn’t it everywhere? Even if it moved slowly, it would only need something like .01 percent of the Universe’s lifespan to be everywhere. So why isn’t it?" (Sep, 2014 | Source)
"People shouldn’t think ‘I feel fear about this and therefore shouldn’t do it.’ It’s normal to feel fear, like you’d have to have something mentally wrong if you didn’t feel fear." (Sep, 2016 | Source)
“Something that can be helpful is fatalism, to some degree. If you just accept the probabilities, then that diminishes fear.” (Sep, 2016 | Source)
“Physics is true, everything else is debatable, and even physics is questionable.” (July, 2016 | Source)
"Obviously if the President could make the economy great, and there was like a button he could press, he'd be pressing that button at the speed of light, but they can't. They can't just magically make the economy good, no President wants the economy bad - ever - there's just a limit to how much they can do." (June, 2016 | Source)
"I always have optimism, but I'm realistic. It was not with the expectation of great success that I started Tesla or SpaceX.”
"Don't delude yourself into thinking something's working when it's not, or you're gonna get fixated on a bad solution."
“People should pursue what they're passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.”
"If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it's not."
"The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur."
"If something is important enough you should try, even if the probable outcome is failure."
"I think it is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary."
"Most people can learn a lot more than they think they can."
“Life is too short for long-term grudges.”
"The United States is a nation of explorers. America is the spirit of human exploration distilled."
"It wasn't a question of profit versus non-profit. It was how do we live."
"I think if you can solve genetic diseases. If you can prevent dementia, or Alzheimer's or something like that with genetic reprogramming that would be wonderful." (Sep, 2016 | Source)
Cover photo from Web Summit