Taking bold action on climate change simply makes good business sense. It’s also the right thing to do for people and the planet. Setting a net-zero GHG emissions target by 2050 will drive innovation, grow jobs, build prosperity, and secure a better world for what will soon be 9 billion people.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter.

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

It’s not going to do any good to land on Mars if we’re stupid.

Google’s done a super good job on search; Apple’s done a great job on the IPod.

In the material sciences these are and have been, and are most surely likely to continue to be heroic days.

Whenever you do something, people try to re-do it and do a better version, especially if they’re in another country.

When the PC was launched, people knew it was important.

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War.

By the time we see that climate change is really bad, your ability to fix it is extremely limited… The carbon gets up there, but the heating effect is delayed. And then the effect of that heat on the species and ecosystem is delayed. That means that even when you turn virtuous, things are actually going to get worse for quite a while.

Few of us can stand prosperity. Another man’s, I mean.

Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill.

People are going to buy cheap fertilizer so they can grow enough crops to feed themselves, which will be increasingly difficult with climate change.

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having their own racial or ethnic leaders to follow.

We can choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer jobs. After a decade that was defined by what we bought and borrowed, we’re getting back to basics, and doing what America has always done best: We’re making things again.

A teacher should have a creative mind.

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

Necessity… the mother of invention.

Innovations that are guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food security in the future.

The thing that’s made me open my eyes to what was happening to the environment and climate was films and documentaries.

I mean, people aren’t continuing like this and not doing anything because they are evil, or because they don’t want to. We aren’t destroying the biosphere because we are selfish. We are doing it simply because we are unaware.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

I can’t usually stomach a project after I finish it, but for those days and weeks and months that it’s new to me, I do listen to it, and it might change over time, but it’s about function.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

I think technology really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion.

If you want to make computers that really work, create a design team composed only of healthy, active women with lots else to do in their lives, and give them carte blanche.

The future is green energy, sustainability, renewable energy.

Now, we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons. For each American, it’s about 20 tons. For people in poor countries, it’s less than one ton. It’s an average of about five tons for everyone on the planet. And, somehow, we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.

Governments will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They set public policy and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make sure solutions reach everyone who needs them. They also fund basic research, which is a crucial component of the innovation that improves life for everyone.

Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

I am in touch with a company that hopes to replicate my voice. However, they are not replicating my original voice – if they did that, I would sound like a man in his 20s, which would be very strange! They are actually trying to replicate the synthesizer that sits on my wheelchair.

The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.

When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, ‚Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?‘ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

Everyone I look up to is bringing me into the tech world. You’d be surprised by all the music people in it, invested in it.

Even if producing CO2 was good for the environment, given that we’re going to run out of hydrocarbons, we need to find some sustainable means of operating.

Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize, in positive ways to help society.

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people – as remarkable as the telephone.

What we want to do is make a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any mobile device has ever been, and super-easy to use. This is what iPhone is. OK? So, we’re going to reinvent the phone.

Fashion has become so whatever. I don’t think there are any stones left to unturn.

A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last.

To all the musicians who are making reggaeton, let’s put some more effort into it and bring something new to the people!

Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.

I just think people should invest in the world. Don’t invest in fashion, but invest in the world.

Art is to be free. Design is to fix.

I do think there is a lot of potential if you have a compelling product and people are willing to pay a premium for that. I think that is what Apple has shown. You can buy a much cheaper cell phone or laptop, but Apple’s product is so much better than the alternative, and people are willing to pay that premium.

The goal of Tesla is to accelerate sustainable energy, so we’re going to take a step back and think about what’s most likely to achieve that goal.

If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.

Are we a nation that educates the world’s best and brightest in our universities, only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us? Or are we a nation that encourages them to stay and create jobs, businesses, and industries right here in America?

I’m responsible for starting a whole new school of pretension.

We’re running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere… can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.

I’m a radical environmentalist; I think the sooner we asphyxiate in our own filth, the better. The world will do better without us. Maybe some fuzzy animals will go with us, but there’ll be plenty of other animals, and they’ll be back.

Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.

Research is creating new knowledge.

In order for us to have a future that’s exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we’re a space-bearing civilization.

I wanted to get rid of the element that had been considered essential in pop music: the voice.

I have been on the road and visited numerous places and met people from all over the globe. I can say that it looks nearly the same everywhere I have been: The climate crisis is ignored by people in charge, despite the science being crystal clear.

Microsoft is not about greed. It’s about innovation and fairness.

Many people, especially in the U.S., see countries like Sweden or Norway or Finland as role models – we have such a clean energy sector, and so on. That may be true, but we are not role models.