Inspiring Key Quotes

STEVE JOBS

We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” On Mac OS X, Jan 24, 2000.

“It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry. This is landmark stuff. I can’t overestimate it!” On the iTunes Music Store, as told to Fortune, May 12, 2003.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993.

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets. “

“I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” On Bill Gates, quoted in The New York Times, Jan. 12, 1997.

“It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.” On life, 1982, quoted in Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple, 1987.

“I'm the only person I know that's lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year.... It's very character-building.” Apple Confidential, 2.0

“Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.”

“I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.” [Wired, February 1996]

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” Stanford commencement speech, June 2005.

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Stanford commencement speech, June 2005.