15 inspirational quotes by Sergey Brin, the brain behind Google

Today, Google is an $800 billion business, commanding a mammoth space alongside other internet giants such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and others. As spectacularly successful that is, it all started out as an idea, in the dormitory of Standford University in the year 1995.

Sergey Brin, the Russian-American computer scientist and tech entrepreneur, who brainstormed the technology behind Google (along with co-founder Larry Page), started out by building a search engine as part of his research project.

The idea clicked and soon, Brin and Page’s web crawler had started to explore the web. In 1998, the company was officially incorporated, and the rest, as they say, is history.

On his 46th birthday, we take a look at some of the classic Sergey Brin quotes that will inspire, motivate, and buoy you through the difficult times.

“Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems.”

“I would like to see anyone be able to achieve their dreams, and that’s what this organisation does.”

“To me, this is about preserving history and making it available to everyone.”

“We do lots of stuff. The only way you are going to have success is to have lots of failures first.”

“Too many rules stifle innovation.”

“Obviously, everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately, making a big difference in the world.”

“When it’s too easy to get money, then you get a lot of noise mixed in with the real innovation and entrepreneurship. Tough times bring out the best parts of Silicon Valley.”

“I feel there’s an existential angst among young people. I didn’t have that. They see enormous mountains, where I only saw one little hill to climb.”

“We wouldn’t survive if people didn’t trust us.”

“Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine.”

“We are currently not planning on conquering the world.”

“If what we are doing is not seen by some people as science fiction, it’s probably not transformative enough.” 

“It’s not enough not to be evil. We also actively try to be good.”

“It’s clear there’s a lot of room for improvement, there’s no inherent ceiling we’re hitting up on.”

“It's a romantic notion that you're going to have one brilliant idea and then everything is going to be great... but the execution and delivery are what's key.”

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)