Elon Musk

“If we could do high-speed rail in California just half a notch above what they've done on the Shanghai line in China, and if we had a straight path from L.A. to San Francisco, as well as the milk run, at least that would be progress.”

“We are the first species capable of self-annihilation.”

“I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better.”

“Great companies are built on great products.”

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

“I think you should always bear in mind that entropy is not on your side.”

“The problem with car dealerships is you've already decided what you want to buy before you even go there, and you're really just going there to talk through some annoying negotiation.”

“If humanity doesn't land on Mars in my lifetime, I would be very disappointed.”

“My vision is for a fully reusable rocket transport system between Earth and Mars that is able to re-fuel on Mars - this is very important - so you don't have to carry the return fuel when you go there.”

“Particularly Instagram, people look like they have a much better life than they really do. People basically seem like they are way better-looking than they really are, and they are way happier-seeming than they really are.”

“I'm personally a moderate and a registered independent, so I'm not strongly Democratic or strongly Republican.”

“Government isn't that good at rapid advancement of technology. It tends to be better at funding basic research. To have things take off, you've got to have commercial companies do it.”

“Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.”

“I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I'm really good at email.”

“The reason we should do a carbon tax is because it's the right thing to do. It's economics 101, elementary stuff.”

“I think long term you can see Tesla establishing factories in Europe, in other parts of the U.S. and in Asia.”

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

“I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don't believe in the whole thing of just using other people's money. I don't think that's right. I'm not going to ask other people to invest in something if I'm not prepared to do so myself.”

“Facebook is quite entrenched and has a network effect. It's hard to break into a network once it's formed.”

“Biofuels such as ethanol require enormous amounts of cropland and end up displacing either food crops or natural wilderness, neither of which is good.”