The reason the social-networking phenomenon is something that I invested in early and massively - I led the Series A financing for Friendster; I founded a company called Socialnet in 1997; I founded LinkedIn; and I was part of the first round of financing in Facebook - it sounds trivial, but people matter.

And people who take risk intelligently can usually actually make a lot more progress than people who don't.

Entrepreneurs are like visionaries. One of the ways they run forward is by viewing the thing they're doing as something that's going to be the whole world.

I get energy from one-on-one conversations most often, and I lose energy from group conversations most often.

PayPal was disruptive, it was democratizing, and it had universal appeal. It gave power to millions and millions of individuals and reduced monopolist control from nations, banks, and other huge corporations.

People are still very focused on the startup story: Risk-taking founders, with a bold idea, some capital and a network supportive environment, go out and take the shot on goal. But the problem is, this is no longer the truth about what makes Silicon Valley so special.

I really like the 'Silicon Valley' show. It's good to do a little rib-poking and not take yourself too seriously, so I think it's awesome the show does that.

LinkedIn allows professionals, including the middle class, to invest in themselves in order to find the right jobs. That essentially can help make them prosperous.

The way you deal with bullies is you change their economic equation. Make it more expensive for them to hassle you.

What happens during recessions, is you have less windfalls just helping you cover mistakes. You have to be more careful about not making mistakes.

The key thing is to invest in the future, and what that means is - when you're deploying technology or you're a technology business - is to make sure that you're keeping on the innovation cycle, where you're both creating and adopting the new business practices and the new techniques in order to drive your business the right way.

If performance management were a movie, it will become less 'Gladiator' and more 'Moneyball.'

Democracy tends to be a collaborative process, a committee, a consensus. Silicon Valley tends to believe in the individual who creates a small group and does something big.

Over the last 20 years, I've worked on or invested in many companies that scaled to 100 million users or more. But here's the thing: You don't start with 100 million users. You start with a few. So, stop thinking big, and start thinking small.

It's unprecedented in the post-World War II era to have the leader of Germany say, 'Oh we can't rely on America anymore.'

As a candidate, Trump could make outlandish statements with little regard for their Constitutional implications. As President, he is pledged to respect the Constitution's authority, and the specific rights and protections it guarantees to every American citizen.

If Trump's actions as President reflect his campaign rhetoric, the ACLU and other capable organizations like it will be critical for defending the Bill of Rights for all Americans.

In democracies, we aren't always governed by the people or the parties that we voted for. But when officials are elected, we must respect their authority, as long as they're exercising that authority within the bounds of whatever regulatory frameworks are in place to guide them.

Our elected officials must understand that we, the American people, expect them to perform the duties of their office, even when that means working with other elected officials from different parties.

The best ideas make you want to say 'yes' and 'no' in the same breath.

A startup, to a some degree, is a set of those challenges of, 'If you don't solve this, you're dead.'

I do think there are some irreducible inefficiencies in government. But we still need to have government; we still need to make government effective if we can.

One of the things that happens that's challenging within the democratic process is that people say, 'Look at this failure, so we should totally change this whole thing.' And then you add in tons of bureaucratic process and checks and balances, and all of a sudden, it doesn't work that well.

Silicon Valley tends to be very myopic - to be focused on one or two things - which has some strengths as well as weaknesses.

Simply writing a Ph.D. or academic book was unlikely to play much of a role in helping shape people's lives as I wanted.

Our polling methodology has gotten outdated, and, in fact, it's not really telling us what it needs to be telling us.

We need to invest in technologies that amplify human capacity, not replace it.

In the past, individuals and companies envisioned a lifetime mutual commitment. That's not realistic anymore - nor is it in the interest of either party. So both parties need a more adaptable way to engage each other and co-invest over shorter periods of time for mutual benefit.

Many employer-employee relationships are built on a lie that starts from the first interaction: neither party automatically conceives of the relationship as something that will last a lifetime, but both interact as if it is. This lie of omission bases the relationship on distrust.

My father had been a Wehrmacht officer in the second world war and was a violent and damaged man.

I learned to ski in the Dolomites at the age of five. Ski lifts didn't exist then, so I did everything on foot.

I produce schnapps on my farm but I'm not fond of drinking it.

Albert Frederick Mummery and Chris Bonington are the British climbers I most admire.

Fame is very heavy. When there are large crowds, I'm unable to handle it.

A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.

For me, imagination is more important in climbing than muscle or daredevil antics.

I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'

I'm a rock climber, a high-altitude climber, an adventurer, a storyteller through my museums, and a writer of more than 50 books.

Before kids, I was really going to the limit. Afterwards, I was approaching the limit but then maybe turning around.

Around half of the top alpinists have died climbing. Of course if I'm careful and turn back more often than the others, I can increase my chances of survival. But if I hadn't been lucky a few times, I wouldn't be here.

I was always at my best when I was learning, when I was curious. When I had yet to see past the next horizon.

In politics, you have to compromise from morning to evening. Democracy is the art of compromise.

My brother is in me. When we remember somebody else, in a certain way they are still alive. I see my brother - he is still young - looking to the Dolomites where we did our ascents. I remember those moments, so he is still together with me.

I have the feeling that behind a certain dimension we cannot anymore see, understand, feel, smell, hear - nothing. What people are calling God I am not defining, but I am a 'possibilitiest.'

I am not so famous. I'm known in a few countries like Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and around the Alps. Some climbers in Beijing know my name, and some in America, but I am not really famous. It's very relative, my fame.

There is no joy involved in climbing mountains, there is simply the challenge, the self-invented challenge, the play.

The art of climbing is the art of survival. The best climber is the man or woman going in the most crazy places but surviving.

There are periods on the mountain when you exist between living and dying, sometimes for days. I went through that with my brother on Nanga Parbat. It is very difficult, but it is the most intense experience. And always after such experiences, when I was back among people, I felt I had been reborn.

First, I am afraid to die and I love to live. But an adventure is only an adventure when there is the threat of dying.

The mountains are dangerous. Only an unintelligent person will say they are not dangerous.