quotes by Founder Quotes

“There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.”

“The more you think, the more time you have.”

“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. The person sitting in the shade now should be grateful for the person who planted and tended that tree. That includes all those benefactors of humanity throughout history that created, invented, financed, produced, maintained and improved all that we enjoy today.”

“There is no need to run outside for better seeing... Rather abide at the center of your being; For the more you leave it the less you learn. Search your heart and see... The way to do is to be.”

“Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.”

“If we start deciding, based on guesses or emotions, whether we will or won't participate in a business where we should have some long run edge, we're in trouble.”

“Microsoft Research has a thing called the Sense Cam that, as you walk around, it's taking photos all the time. And the software will filter and find the ones that are interesting without having to think, 'Let's get out the camera and get that shot.' You just have that, and software helps you pick what you want.”

“My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail.”

“The wise are not learned, the learned are not wise.”

“Investing is forgoing consumption now in order to have the ability to consume more at a later date.”

“I have made the mistaken assumption - and I will attempt to be better at this - of thinking that because somebody is on Twitter and is attacking me that it is open season. And that is my mistake.”

“And, because my role in society - or any artist or poet's role - is to try to express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel, not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all. And it's like that's the job of the artist in society, not to...they're not some alienated being living on the outskirts of town. It's fine to live on the outskirts of town, but artists must reflect what we all are. … If that's taken it too much on meself, I feel that artists are that - they're reflections of society... Mirrors.”

“Ideas are the source of all things”

“You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.”

“People asking questions, lost in confusion, well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions.”

“Your name or your body, what is dearer? Your body or your wealth, what is worthier?”

“America should stand for more than just wealth.”

“Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at all without opposites.”

“The high wage begins down in the shop. If it is not created there it cannot get into pay envelopes. There will never be a system invented which will do away with the necessity for work.”

“The more you learn, the more you have a framework that the knowledge fits into.”

“The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is really worthless.”

“The one aim of these financiers is world control by the creation of inextinguishable debts.”

“There are places I'll remember All my life though some have changed Some forever not for better Some have gone and some remain All these places have their moments With lovers and friends I still can recall Some are dead and some are living In my life I've loved them all”

“In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.”

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”

“It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.”

“In the Golden Age, Rulers were unknown. In the following age Rulers were loved and praised. Next came the age When rulers were feared. Finally the age When rulers are hated.”

“Consciously paying more for a stock than its calculated value - in the hope that it can soon be sold for a still-higher price - should be labelled speculation”

“We try to exert a Ted Williams kind of discipline. In his book The Science of Hitting, Ted explains that he carved the strike zone into 77 cells, each the size of a baseball. Swinging only at balls in his "best" cell, he knew, would allow him to bat .400; reaching for balls in his "worst" spot, the low outside corner of the strike zone, would reduce him to .230. In other words, waiting for the fat pitch would mean a trip to the Hall of Fame; swinging indiscriminately would mean a ticket to the minors.”

“Nobody believes in completely unadulterated capitalism.”

“I slipped myself some pink Xannies/And danced around the house in all-over print panties.”

“One who believes in himself has no need to convince others.”

“There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.”

“Surrender your self-interest. Love others as much as you love yourself. Then you can be entrusted with all things under heaven.”

“Much like the hands of a clock go nowhere fast, anxious thoughts run us round-and-round without taking us anywhere!”

“Yet mystery and imagination arise from the same source. This source is called darkness ... Darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding.”

“Philanthropy, although it's tiny compared to the government, it's 2% of the US economy, which is the largest percentage, other than the Middle East.”

“I started SpaceX with the expectation of failure.”

“The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.”

“No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.”

“Do what you would do for free, having passion for what you do is the most important thing.”

“There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war.”

“Come together, right now.”

“If at first you do succeed, quit trying on investing.”

“Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.”

“The Beatles had gone beyond comprehension. We were smoking marijuana for breakfast. We were well into marijuana and nobody could communicate with us, because we were just glazed eyes, giggling all the time.”

“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”

“We win because we hire the smartest people. We improve our products based on feedback, until they're the best. We have retreats each year where we think about where the world is heading.”

“Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?”

“Wayne's cool. I ran into him at my hangout back home, and he's just cool. I actually have this beat that I want him on, but I was too scared to get it to Clancy to get to them, but Wayne's cool.”