Peter Thiel Quotes

We know that, when it comes to technology and the economy, if you're not constantly moving forward, then - without a doubt - you're moving backwards.

The struggle between the opponents and defenders of capitalism is a struggle between innovators who do not know what innovation to make and conservatives who do not know what to conserve.

The history of economic growth is the history of people making more with less and shifting into new jobs that were unheard of in the previous generation.

Innovation and commerce are as powerful tools for creating social progress as they are for driving technological advancement.

Economic progress is the work of the savers, who accumulate capital, and of the entrepreneurs, who turn capital to new uses.

Capitalism has brought with it progress, not merely in production but also in knowledge.

On the day a country decides not to invest a cent in innovation, discovery or exploration, that country decides to be a tributary to others.

It seems with progress you gain certain things and you lose certain things. The automobile replaced the horse and buggy but you lost all of that nice manure.

Technology and capitalism are very much linked. I think that capitalism probably works best in a technologically progressing society.

In this time of budget cuts, we cannot forget that basic science is a building block for scientific innovation and economic growth in the information age.

Mass prosperity came with the mass innovation that sprung up in 1815 in Britain, soon after in America, and later in Germany and France: It brought sustained growth to these nations - also to nations with entrepreneurs willing and able to copy the innovations.

Even some of the greatest technology-led revolutions, or allegedly technology-led, really were only made possible because of trends already present.

Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.

The only way you get economic progress, real standards of living moving higher, is to have the savings of the society continuously invested in the cutting-edge technologies. And those technologies which are obsolescent get dropped out.

Long term, I have a lot of confidence in the United States. We have an excellent record in terms of innovation. We have great universities that are involved in technological change and progress. We have an entrepreneurial culture, much more than almost any other country.

Societies advance through innovation every bit as much as economies do.

From computers to information technology to airplanes, it has been America's unique blend of republican government and free-market capitalism that has allowed us to surpass all other nations in history.

I see all this talk about jobs going overseas as a symptom of the absence of innovation. And the absence of innovation is a symptom of there being no major national priority to advance a frontier.

Well into the 20th century, scholars viewed economic advances as resulting from commercial innovations enabled by the discoveries of scientists - discoveries that come from outside the economy and out of the blue.

If you look historically, what creates growth and wealth is innovation and investment, and increase in scale - more customers.

How did the economy produce all these amazing things that we have around us - computers and cell phones and so on? There were a bunch of ideas, and the good ones grew and prospered. And the bad ones were pretty ruthlessly weeded out.

At its very best, the Western model speaks for itself. It's the model that put food on the table. It's the refrigerators. It put a man on the moon.

Electricity is an example of a general purpose technology, like the steam engine before it. General purpose technologies drive most economic growth, because they unleash cascades of complementary innovations, like lightbulbs and, yes, factory redesign.

The key thing about wealth in a capitalist economy is that it reproduces itself and usually earns a positive net return.

To me, part of the magic of this era is that the very same innovations, discoveries, and technologies that are allowing us to live longer, healthier lives are also creating a healthier economy.