When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.

The harder I work, the luckier I become.

I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.

A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.

What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

You need to think outside the box. You need to think differently if you want to sustain what, for me, is my peak performance: the very best that I can achieve as an athlete every day.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

I don’t really get into a big intellectual analysis of why I am going to do a certain script or not.

Often, in the real world, it’s not the smart that get ahead but the bold.

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.

For the first time we’re allowing developers who don’t work at Facebook to develop applications just as if they were. That’s a big deal because it means that all developers have a new way of doing business if they choose to take advantage of it. There are whole companies that are forming whose only product is a Facebook Platform application.

Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.

Successful people make money. It’s not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.

I feel that the best companies are started not because the founder wanted a company but because the founder wanted to change the world… If you decide you want to found a company, you maybe start to develop your first idea. And hire lots of workers.

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

We will burn that bridge when we come to it.

Sometimes I wonder why I’m a novelist right now. There is no definite career reason why I became a writer. Something happened, and I became a writer. And now I’m a successful writer.

You cannot make a giant space company in your dorm room. Not today. And the reason is that the heavy lifting infrastructure isn’t in place.

It feels good being a restaurant owner because it’s part of my dreams of being the biggest mogul.

The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.

Necessity… the mother of invention.

My own dreams fortunately came true in this great state. I became Mr. Universe; I became a successful businessman. And even though some people say I still speak with a slight accent, I have reached the top of the acting profession.

If you count E-mail, I’m on the Internet all day, every day.

Music is changing so quickly, and the landscape of the music industry itself is changing so quickly, that everything new, like Spotify, all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment.

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

Perhaps one day we will have machines that can cope with approximate task descriptions, but in the meantime, we have to be very prissy about how we tell computers to do things.

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.

The Internet is a big distraction.

I think the message has already been sent to Hollywood, which is that this kid’s a hard worker, he’s talented, and people are coming out to see him. And when you have box-office results, Hollywood treats you different. Hollywood stands up.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

Research is creating new knowledge.

When in doubt, don’t.

The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation. That’s over. Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it’s going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of this decade.

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.

Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.

Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.

Successful people are simply those with successful habits.

I think Tesla will most likely develop its own autopilot system for the car, as I think it should be camera-based, not Lidar-based. However, it is also possible that we do something jointly with Google.

I only change things where I know about a situation. I’d never change just for change.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.

Health is certainly extremely important, and we’ve done a number of things at Facebook to help improve global health and work in that area, and I am excited to do more there, too. But the reality is that it’s not an either-or. People need to be healthy and be able to have the Internet as a backbone to connect them to the whole economy.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

You’re president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

Basically, I’m one of the greatest producers ever. And I’m also one of the greatest DJs ever. And I’m also one of the best executives ever.

Whatever position I occupied, it was the result of colleagues – of my comrades in the movement – who had decided in their wisdom to use me for the purpose of focusing the attention of the country and the international community on me.

I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

It is not, of course, complete yet – but some sentences were understood this afternoon… I feel that I have at last struck the solution of a great problem – and the day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid onto houses just like water or gas – and friends converse with each other without leaving home.

I feel very strongly that SpaceX would not have been able to get started, nor would we have made the progress that we have, without the help of NASA.

Whatever you want to do, do with full passion and work really hard towards it. Don’t look anywhere else. There will be a few distractions, but if you can be true to yourself, you will be successful for sure.

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.