Bezos, in his own words:

"We need to go into space if we want grow as a species. Another route would be just to face stasis [i.e., a population equilibrium], but I don't think that's as interesting. I don't think we want to just survive on this planet, I think we want to thrive and do amazing things."

“I predict that in the next few hundred years, all heavy industry will move off planet. It will be just way more convenient to do it in space, where you have better access to resources, better access to 24/7 solar power... In space, you get solar power all the time. So there’ll be a lot of advantages to doing heavy manufacturing there, and Earth will end up zoned residential and light industry.”

"I don't like the Plan B idea that we want to go into space so we have a backup planet," he said, noting NASA's efforts to send probes throughout the solar system. "Believe me, this is the best planet. There is no doubt this is the one you want to protect. This is the jewel. We evolved here, we're kind of made for this planet. It's gorgeous, and we can use space to protect it."

Some highlights:

Bezos wants to use O'Neill cylinders, large rotating structures to give Earth-style gravity to inhabitants while in space.

His goal is to build infrastructure in space, including transportation, allowing anyone with a good idea to get into the industry without necessarily a lot of money. Therefore, Blue Origin's current focus is getting payloads into orbit and increasingly low costs.