"Stop wearing your AirPods."
"It truly is like wearing a mini microwave centimetres from your brain. And everyone should know that putting a microwave on your head is a horrible idea."
Elon Musk on why he created his first company: I just wanted to be as useful as possible.
“I certainly didn't expect to get the things done that I have gotten done. Quite frankly, I expected failure. So it was really just that I wanted to do something that was as useful as possible. I wanted to be as useful as possible, and that was it, really.
I didn't even originally intend to even start a company. I tried to get a job at Netscape after graduating from Penn, and Mark Andreessen is a friend of mine, but they didn't respond to my resume that I mailed in. So I was like, okay, well, I guess I'll try writing software. I've been writing software since I was a kid, so I'll write some Internet software and see if I can do some useful applications on the Internet. And I ended up writing the first maps and directions in Yellow Pages and White Pages on the Internet back in 1995.
It was just really because nobody would give me a job on the Internet. So that was it. If they'd give me a job, I guess I would have just worked at Netscape or something.
But my best advice really is just, try to do an honest day's work and try to be as useful as possible to your fellow human beings. Try to give more than you take. And I have a lot of respect for people who do an honest day's work. That's what really matters.”
From: Town Hall Harrisburg, October 19, 2024
Elon Musk: Radical deregulation is necessary in Europe. If that means leaving the EU, it means leaving the EU.
“Europe is overregulated. There are too many rules and regulations that make it very difficult to create a company and do too much to protect large companies at the expense of small to medium-sized companies.
So, the net result is you have a bunch of very small companies in Europe and then it's small number of very large companies, but then not much in the middle.
So, there needs to be a way to go from being a small company if you're making great products and services to be able to scale to ultimately become a big company. But you have effectively regulatory capture by the large corporations in Europe. They don't really want to reduce the regulatory burden and they like the fact that the regulations effectively protect their duopolies or monopolies in some cases.
So really, I think it's up to the government to say no, we have to foster small companies and allow them to compete and reduce regulations because the regulatory situation in Europe is stifling and Brussels is amplifying that greatly. So you have both the local regulations, the country regulations and then you have the EU regulations. There's so many regulations in Europe, it makes it extremely difficult to start a company and be successful. So, I think radical deregulation is necessary in Europe. And if that means leaving the EU, it means leaving the EU.”
From: Interview with Matteo Salvini, April 5, 2025
Elon Musk: "The reason I’m here is because I’m very worried about America going bankrupt due to the corruption and waste and if we don’t do something the ship of America is going to sink. We are all on that ship.”