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Who really said it

If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting

Spoken by Jeff Bezos Born 1964 · Founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, owner of The Washington Post
Genuinely Bezos, spoken on the record and on camera — the only unsettled detail is a two-word difference between transcriptions. In copyright

Bezos said it on stage at Recode’s Code Conference 2016 on Tuesday 31 May 2016, in conversation with Recode founding editor Walt Mossberg, when Mossberg asked him about Peter Thiel secretly funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker. Recode’s own report that night ↗ transcribes the sentence slightly shorter — without “absolutely” and “then” — so the popular wording is one of two published transcriptions of the same live remark.

Last verified 17 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting” Jeff Bezos — spoken at Recode's Code Conference 2016, 31 May 2016, in conversation with Walt Mossberg. Wording as transcribed by Boing Boing, 1 June 2016; Recode's same-night transcription reads "If you can't tolerate critics, don't do anything new or interesting." Via Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Vox Media (Recode / Code Conference recording and reporting)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Jeff Bezos — Founder of Amazon & Blue Origin, owner of The Washington Post. Theme: "If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

The record

Occasion
Recode’s Code Conference 2016 — onstage interview with Walt Mossberg
Spoken
Tuesday 31 May 2016
Recording
Peter Thiel vs. Gawker | Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon | Code Conference 2016
First reported
Recode, Edmund Lee, 31 May 2016; quoted in the popular wording by Boing Boing, 1 June 2016

The best defense against speech that you don’t like about yourself as a public figure is to develop a thick skin. You can’t stop it. … If you’re doing anything interesting in the world, you’re going to have critics. If you can’t tolerate critics, don’t do anything new or interesting. Recode transcription, 31 May 2016

As transcribed by Recode’s Edmund Lee on the night. Boing Boing, watching the same clip the next day, renders the final sentence as “If you absolutely can’t tolerate critics, then don’t do anything new or interesting” — the wording that went on to circulate.

Video of the exchange
Watch the Code Conference 2016 clip
Recode’s report from the night, 31 May 2016

How the line was traced

  • Wikiquote ↗ carries the sentence in its sourced Quotes section — not among misattributions — and points to a Boing Boing post from June 2016, noting that Walt Mossberg dubbed it “The Bezos Principle”.
  • That post, Xeni Jardin’s of 1 June 2016 ↗, is where the popular wording comes from: it embeds the Recode conference video and quotes Bezos saying it while advising Peter Thiel to develop a thick skin.
  • Going upstream to the conference’s own publication, Recode’s Edmund Lee filed on 31 May 2016 ↗, describing the interview as having taken place “on Tuesday” and transcribing the passage in full — but without “absolutely” or “then”.
  • No earlier or rival author turned up: a search of Quote Investigator for “tolerate critics” ↗ returns nothing at all, which is what you would expect of a line with a clear, recent, on-camera origin.
In copyright

This is a 2016 remark, first fixed in Recode’s conference recording and reporting and in Boing Boing’s post of 1 June 2016 — all comfortably inside copyright in the United States. Quoting the sentence itself for identification and comment is ordinary attributed quotation; the surrounding transcript and video are not free to reproduce.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

What gets garbled

The attribution is sound — this really is Bezos. What travels badly is the wording, the date and the name the line goes under.

The “absolutely … then” version variant

This is Boing Boing’s transcription of the video, and Wikiquote follows it. Recode — the conference’s own publication, filing the same night — renders the sentence as “If you can’t tolerate critics, don’t do anything new or interesting” ↗, with no “absolutely” and no “then”. Neither version is invented; they are two reporters hearing one sentence.

“June 2016” off by a day

Wikiquote dates the quote June 2016 because it cites a Boing Boing post published on 1 June. Bezos actually said it the previous evening: Recode’s report is timestamped 31 May 2016 ↗ and describes the interview as having happened “on Tuesday” — 31 May 2016 was a Tuesday.

“The Bezos Principle” not his coinage

The label is Walt Mossberg’s joke made on stage, not a term Bezos uses. Boing Boing reports that Mossberg “jokingly dubs” it that ↗ in the moment; quoting the phrase as Bezos’s own branding for his philosophy misreads the exchange.

Strip the noise and the record is clean: Jeff Bezos said this out loud, on camera, at Recode’s Code Conference on 31 May 2016 ↗, answering a question about Peter Thiel and Gawker.

Context

Why he was asked

In May 2016 it emerged that the venture capitalist Peter Thiel had secretly financed Hulk Hogan’s invasion-of-privacy suit against Gawker — litigation whose evident purpose was to destroy a publication Thiel disliked. Days later Bezos took the stage at Recode’s Code Conference, and Walt Mossberg asked him whether someone should be allowed to do that. Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, answered flatly: “I don’t.”

What followed was the passage this quote comes from. Bezos’s argument was that a public figure’s only workable defence against hostile coverage is temperament, not lawsuits — and that anyone unwilling to develop that temperament has really chosen not to attempt anything worth attacking. Mossberg jokingly christened it “The Bezos Principle” on the spot, which is how the line entered circulation as a standalone maxim.

The best defence Bezos offered a fellow billionaire was not a lawyer. It was a thicker skin.

Why the wording wobbles

Nobody has published an authorised transcript of the exchange. What exists are two journalists’ renderings of the same seconds of speech: Edmund Lee’s for Recode, filed the night of 31 May 2016, and Xeni Jardin’s for Boing Boing, written the next day while watching the clip Recode posted.

Lee’s version runs “If you can’t tolerate critics, don’t do anything new or interesting,” preceded by “If you’re doing anything interesting in the world, you’re going to have critics.” Jardin’s adds “absolutely” and “then.” Because Wikiquote cites Boing Boing, the longer form is the one that spread. Both are reporting the same sentence; neither is a fabrication.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Courage Creativity Doubt

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Recode: 'Develop a thick skin' (31 May 2016)web.archive.org

Edmund Lee's report from the night of the interview, with the fullest transcription of the passage. Archived; recode.net no longer serves it.
Boing Boing: What Bezos thinks about Thiel and Hogan vs. Gawkerweb.archive.org

Xeni Jardin's 1 June 2016 post — the source of the popular wording and of Mossberg's 'The Bezos Principle' joke. This is the page Wikiquote cites.
Peter Thiel vs. Gawker | Jeff Bezos | Code Conference 2016youtube.com

The video clip of the exchange, published 2 June 2016 on the Recode conference channel. This is the recording Boing Boing embedded.
Wikiquote: Jeff Bezosen.wikiquote.org

Carries the line in its sourced Quotes section — not under Misattributed or Disputed — citing the Boing Boing post.
Quote Investigator search: 'tolerate critics'quoteinvestigator.com

Returns nothing. QI has never had cause to investigate this line, which is consistent with it having a clear, recent, on-camera origin.
Wikipedia: Recodeen.wikipedia.org

Background on the Code Conference, founded by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher and held each late May; Vox Media acquired Recode in May 2015.

The speaker

Who said it

Jeff Bezos

Born 12 January 1964 · Founder of Amazon & Blue Origin, owner of The Washington Post

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 and ran it as chief executive until stepping down on 5 July 2021, staying on as executive chairman. He also founded the rocket company Blue Origin and bought The Washington Post in 2013 — the newspaper ownership is why his view on a billionaire bankrolling a lawsuit against a publisher was treated as newsworthy. By 2016 he had spent two decades as a lightning rod for criticism of Amazon’s working conditions and its effect on bookshops, which is the experience this remark is drawn from.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

How to cite this

Edmund Lee, “Jeff Bezos on Gawker vs. Peter Thiel: ‘Develop a thick skin.’” Recode, 31 May 2016; and Xeni Jardin, “What Amazon’s Jeff Bezos thinks about Peter Thiel and Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker,” Boing Boing, 1 June 2016 — both reporting Bezos’s remarks at Recode’s Code Conference 2016. The “absolutely … then” wording is Boing Boing’s transcription, which Wikiquote follows.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting’?” Last verified 17 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/if-you-absolutely-cant-tolerate-critics-then-dont-do/

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