Top 80 Quotes & Sayings by Pavel Durov

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Russian businessman Pavel Durov.
Last updated on December 25, 2024.
Pavel Durov

Pavel Valeryevich Durov is a Russian-born Emirati entrepreneur who is known for being the founder of the social networking site VK and Telegram Messenger. He is the younger brother of Nikolai Durov. For some years after his dismissal as CEO of VK in 2014, the Durov brothers travelled the world in self-imposed exile as citizens of Saint Kitts and Nevis. In 2017, Pavel joined the World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leaders as a representative of Finland. Durov was naturalized as a French citizen in August 2021. As of 2 May 2022, his net worth is estimated at US$15.1 billion.

Maybe we shouldn't be too dependent on politicians trying to make us believe that we are safe only because of their actions.
Compromises lead you nowhere. You can't be happy doing something you don't believe in.
I believe the role of the government is too big. Society must be more decentralized. — © Pavel Durov
I believe the role of the government is too big. Society must be more decentralized.
If you get rid of emotion for a minute and think about the threat of terrorism statistically, it's not even there. The probability that you will slip on a wet floor in your bathroom and die is a thousand times higher than the probability of you dying as a result of terrorism.
The No. 1 reason for me to support and help launch Telegram was to build a means of communication that can't be accessed by the Russian security agencies, so I can talk about it for hours.
To be truly free, you should be ready to risk everything for freedom.
Me myself, I'm not a big fan of the idea of countries.
The first thing that we wanted to make clear is that nobody has to trust anybody. We don't take people's trust for Telegram for granted.
As a foreign company and offshore entity we will not be obliged to comply with the rules of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and countries like that.
I hope Telegram will be able to rely on the community even more than VK since it's a non-profit project that hopefully will be able to attract people who share the idea behind it.
This is a big debate concerning the values of the society in question: Whether the risk of a terrorist act is more important than the 100 percent right to privacy.
Unless you are cool with all of your photos and messages becoming public one day, you should delete WhatsApp from your phone.
I think we should be less dependent on the outdated concept we call countries. — © Pavel Durov
I think we should be less dependent on the outdated concept we call countries.
We don't put a dollar toward marketing or advertising. I think we're more efficient than Facebook.
VK is famous for its competitions among third-party developers who build alternative versions of VK on its open API.
My brother is a genius. When we went to Italy, he was on the local television channel as a prodigy, who could solve very sophisticated mathematical equations. He was only seven or eight years old but he could solve mathematical problems for fourteen year olds.
We think that providing this kind of secure private means of communication for the masses for 99.999 percent of people that have nothing to do with terrorism means more than the threat that we see from the other side.
A lot of people in the western world don't realize how much taxes limit their options. You can end up paying almost half your income in taxes, which basically means you're working for the government for 180 days a year. I think I can find better ways to use the money I make for the benefit of society.
I have a clean conscience and ideals that I am willing to defend.
I like to make fun of serious matters.
Some things like the layout of the early VKontakte was very influenced by Facebook. Otherwise it could take ages for me to build, and I was not a professional designer.
I believe that at some point we should come up with a business model that would make us sustainable.
Governments should be smaller. In fact, governments and countries in general are less important than we think they are. They take credit for processes they have nothing to do with.
To give the personal details of Ukrainians to the Russian authorities would not only be against the law, but also a betrayal of those millions of people in Ukraine who trusted us.
I consider myself a legal citizen of the world.
I was born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R., before my father got an appointment at a university in Italy and we moved to Italy. I spend a few years there before my family returned to Russia.
Any government that likes to call themselves democratic should welcome Snowden and allow him to live in their country.
Not everybody's actions are based on ideas. Some people's actions are based on profit.
Armed police at my apartment doors in 2011 was scary, but the sudden - and not exactly legal - takeover of 48 per cent of VKontakte, that coincided with a fabricated case against myself in April 2013, was more frightening.
I'm out of Russia and have no plans to go back.
Telegram's popularity is spread evenly across continents. We have a substantial user base in Spain, Italy, Netherlands and Germany. Also in Brazil, Mexico and Guatemala in Latin America, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Uzbekistan, across Asia.
Whenever technological advancement is made it can always be used both for good or for bad.
It's super-interesting to see what it's like to run the most popular social media platform in a country like Iran.
Italian food is simple and healthy, and it's easier for a vegetarian to choose something from the menu.
Few people outside the Telegram fan community realize that most of the new features in messaging appear on Telegram first, and are then carbon-copied by WhatsApp down to the tiniest details.
The political solutions proposed against encryption are not going to work against terrorism.
In America they started to refer to Telegram as 'ISIS's preferred messaging app,' But in reality there are many more legitimate users.
Terrorists will always find a way to communicate. They will always find a solution. — © Pavel Durov
Terrorists will always find a way to communicate. They will always find a solution.
When I turned 17, I created a website for the students at my University. It enabled students to share lectures and discuss exams, and became popular very quickly.
To put it simply, it doesn't matter how many other messaging apps are out there if all of them suck.
Our growth relies solely on our users suggesting to their friends to download and use Telegram.
There's always a risk that your iPhone can be stolen, and the people who stole it can use the data, your private photos, etc. to blackmail you.
The best legislative initiative - is the absence of one.
Obviously I do have political views - I'm a believer in the free-market economy; I also believe that without competition and respect for human rights there will be no progress because nobody will feel safe and free.
I'm not afraid of anything. I'm not afraid to die, if I have to.
I don't like the idea of beating birds. I'm vegetarian.
You know the interesting thing about encryption is that it cannot be secure just for some people.
I'm motivated by curiosity. — © Pavel Durov
I'm motivated by curiosity.
Political oppositionary activity on the Russian Internet caused the government to pass laws limiting both service operators and users. As a result, the Russian tech environment became much less liberal, losing freedom as one of its competitive advantages.
Telegram is heavily encrypted and privacy-oriented, but we're no friends of terrorists - in fact, every month we block thousands of ISIS-related public channels.
I never want things to be dull.
The probability that we will get into a car accident is a million times higher than the probability we will suffer as a result of terrorist act.
I believe in small governments or no governments. I think the majority of people want to have big government, a big brother taking care of them.
Every time WhatsApp has to fix a critical vulnerability in their app, a new one seems to appear in its place.
It's my responsibility to support the team behind Telegram.
Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed.
I'm a peaceful creature; I'm vegetarian. I don't like wars.
I'm a big believer in Europe.
I'm in a situation where I can determine my own future.
When I was 11, I started building games for IBM PC XT.
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