42 Must-read Quotes by Steve Jobs.

1. Steve Jobs 42.0
42 Must-read Quotes by Steve Jobs.

3. On Beginnings

4. 1.0
There’s a phrase in Buddhism, ‘Beginner’s
mind.’ It’s wonderful to have a beginner’s mind.

5. On Working at HP

6. 2.0
When I was 12 or 13, I wanted to build something
and I needed some parts, so I picked up the phone
and called Bill Hewlett—he was listed in the Palo
Alto phone book. He answered the phone and he was
real nice. He chatted with me for, like, 20 minutes.
He didn’t know me at all, but he ended up giving me
some parts and he got me a job that summer working
at Hewlett-Packard on the line, assembling frequency
counters. Assembling may be too strong. I was
putting in screws. It didn’t matter; I was in heaven.
Playboy Interview, Jan-1985

7. On Woz

8. 3.0
I met Woz when I was 13, at a friend’s garage. He
was about 18. He was, like, the first person I met
who knew more electronics than I did at that point.
We became good friends, because we shared an
interest in computers and we had a sense of humor.
We pulled all kinds of pranks together… Like
making a huge flag with a giant one of these on it
[gives the finger]. The idea was that we would
unfurl it in the middle of a school graduation. Then
there was the time Wozniak made something that
looked and sounded like a bomb and took it to the
school cafeteria.
Playboy Interview, Jan-1985

9. On Computers

10. 4.0
I don’t want people to think of this as a computer,
I think of it as reinventing the phone.

11. 5.0
What a computer is to me is the most remarkable
tool that we have ever come up with. It's the
equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.
Memory and Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of
Congress (1991)

12. On Macintosh

13. 6.0
Was George Orwell right about 1984?
Keynote address in Apple sales conference launching Macintosh
1984 commercial, which ends with the announcer saying "On
January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And
you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984." (Oct-1983)

14. 7.0
We’re gambling on our vision, and we would
rather do that than make "me too" products. Let
some other companies do that. For us, it's always
the next dream.

15. On Why Kids are Important

16. 8.0
Older people sit down and ask, “What is it?” but
the boy asks, “What can I do with it?
When asked why Jobs was seemingly happier in showing off the
new Macintosh to the kid as opposed to the adults. (Playboy
Interview, Jan- 1985)

17. On Apple

18. 9.0
Apple was this incredible journey. I mean we did
some amazing things there. The thing that bound us
together at Apple was the ability to make things that
were going to change the world. That was very
important. We were all pretty young. The average age
in the company was mid-to-late twenties. Hardly
anybody had families at the beginning and we all
worked like maniacs and the greatest joy was that we
felt we were fashioning collective works of art much
like twentieth century physics.
Oral History Interview, Smithsonian (1995)

19. 10.0
Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling
sugared water or do you want a chance to change
the world?
A comment he made in persuading John Sculley to become Apple's
CEO (1985)

20. 11.0
I got a lot of experience and scar tissue.
On his return to Apple (1997)

21. On Apple Products

22. 12.0
Every once in a while a revolutionary product
comes along that changes everything. It's very
fortunate if you can work on just one of these in
your career... Apple's been very fortunate in that
it's introduced a few of these.
Announcing the introduction of the iPhone, as quoted in Apple
unveils cell phone, Apple TV (9 January 2007)

23. 13.0
I've seen the demonstrations on the Internet about
how you can find another person using a Zune and
give them a song they can play three times. It takes
forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the
girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take
one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then
you're connected with about two feet of headphone
cable.
When asked whether he was concerned over Microsoft Zune's wireless
capability, as a product competing with Apple's iPod, Newsweek (2006-
10-14)

24. On Technology Improving Education

25. 14.0
Lincoln did not have a Web site at the log cabin
where his parents home-schooled him, and he
turned out pretty interesting. Historical precedent
shows that we can turn out amazing human
beings without technology. Precedent also shows
that we can turn out very uninteresting human
beings with technology.

26. On Innovation

27. 15.0
Innovation has nothing to do with how many
R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up
with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100
times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's
about the people you have, how you're led, and
how much you get it.
As quoted in Fortune (1998-11-09); also quoted in "TIME
digital 50" in TIME digital archive (1999)

28. 16.0
You know, we don’t grow most of the food we eat.
We wear clothes other people make. We speak a
language that other people developed. We use a
mathematics that other people evolved… I mean,
we’re constantly taking things. It’s a wonderful,
ecstatic feeling to create something that puts it
back in the pool of human experience and
knowledge.

29. 17.0
I wish developing great products was as easy as
writing a check. If that was the case, Microsoft
would have great products.

30. 18.0
It's like... somebody who's not cool trying to be
cool. It's painful to watch. You know what I
mean? It's like... watching Michael Dell try to
dance. Painful.
On trying to innovate to be cool

31. On Design

32. 19.0
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask
creative people how they did something, they feel a
little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just
saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a
while. That's because they were able to connect
experiences they've had and synthesize new things.
And the reason they were able to do that was that
they've had more experiences or they have thought
more about their experiences than other people.
Wired Interview

33. 20.0
To design something really well, you have to get it.
You have to really grok what it's all about. It
takes a passionate commitment to really
thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not
just quickly swallow it. Most people don't take the
time to do that.
Wired Interview

34. 21.0
That's like saying you don't want to kiss your
lover's lips because everyone has lips. It doesn't
make any sense. We don't strive to appear cool.
We just try to make the best products we can. And
if they are cool, well, that's great.”
When asked once about the iPod “how can it be cool when Dick
Cheney and Queen Elizabeth have one?”

35. 22.0
I actually think there's actually very little
distinction between an artist and a scientist or
engineer of the highest calibre. They've just been
to me people who pursue different paths but
basically kind of headed to the same goal which is
to express something of what they perceive to be
the truth around them so that others can benefit by
it.
Oral History Interview, Smithsonian (1995)

36. On the Internet

37. 23.0
Its very exciting is that Microsoft doesn't own it
and I don't think they can. It's the one thing in
the industry that Microsoft can probably never
own.
Oral History Interview, Smithsonian (1995)

38. 24.0
It's very exciting because it is going to destroy vast
layers of our economy and make available a
presence in the marketplace for very small
companies, one that is equal to very large
companies.
Oral History Interview, Smithsonian (1995)

39. On Bill Gates & Microsoft

40. 25.0
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.
In an interview with WSJ (1993)

41. 26.0
The only problem with Microsoft is they just have
no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I
don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a
big way, in the sense that they don't think of
original ideas, and they don't bring much culture
into their products.
Interview in the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds: The
Rise of Accidental Empires (1996)

42. 27.0
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 as quoted in "Creating Jobs" in The New York
Times (Jan -1997)

43. 28.0
Our friends up north spend over five billion
dollars on research and development and all they
seem to do is copy Google and Apple.
On Microsoft, at the Worldwide Developer's Conference (August
2006)

44. On Starting Up

45. 29.0
I get asked this a lot and I have a pretty standard
answer which is, a lot of people come to me and
say “I want to be an entrepreneur.” And I go “Oh
that's great, what's your idea?.” And they say “I
don't have one yet.” And I say “I think you
should go get a job as a busboy or something until
you find something you're really passionate about
because it's a lot of work.”
Oral History Interview, Smithsonian (1995)

46. On Silicon Valley

47. 30.0
You have to go back a little history. I mean this is where the beatnik
happened in San Francisco. This is where the hippy movement
happened. This is the only place in America where Rock 'n Roll really
happened. Right? Most of the bands in this country, Bob Dylan in the
60's, I mean they all came out of here. I think of Joan Baez to Jefferson
Airplane to the Grateful Dead. Everything came out of here, Janis
Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, everybody. Why is that? You've also had
Stanford and Berkeley, two awesome universities drawing smart people
from all over the world and depositing them in this clean, sunny, nice
place where there's a whole bunch of other smart people and pretty good
food. And at times a lot of drugs and all of that. So they stayed. There's
a lot of human capital pouring in. Really smart people. People seem
pretty bright here relative to the rest of the country. People seem pretty
open-minded here relative to the rest of the country.
Oral History Interview, Smithsonian (1995)

48. On Creation & Optimism

49. 31.0
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow
connect in your future. You have to trust in
something — your gut, destiny, life, karma,
whatever. This approach has never let me down,
and it has made all the difference in my life.
Address at Stanford University (2005)

50. 32.0
One might sometimes say in despair no, but I think
yes. And the reason is because human minds settle
into fixed ways of looking at the world and that's
always been true and it's probably always going to be
true. I've always felt that death is the greatest
invention of life. I'm sure that life evolved without
death at first and found that without death, life
didn't work very well because it didn't make room for
the young.
Oral History Interview, Smithsonian (1995)

51. 33.0
Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
Address at Stanford University (2005)

52. On Music

53. 34.0
I think we're all happier when we have a little more music
in our lives. We were very lucky — we grew up in a
generation where music was an incredibly intimate part of
that generation. More intimate than it had been, and
maybe more intimate than it is today, because today there's
a lot of other alternatives. We didn't have video games to
play. We didn't have personal computers. There's so many
other things competing for kids' time now. But, nonetheless,
music is really being reinvented in this digital age, and
that is bringing it back into people's lives. It's a wonderful
thing. And in our own small way, that's how we're working
to make the world a better place.
Rolling Stones Interview, Dec-2003

54. On Money

55. 35.0
I was worth about over a million dollars when I
was twenty-three and over ten million dollars
when I was twenty-four, and over a hundred
million dollars when I was twenty-five and it
wasn't that important because I never did it for
the money.
Interview in the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds: The
Rise of Accidental Empires (1996)

56. 36.0
I'm the only person I know that's lost a quarter of
a billion dollars in one year... It's very character-building.
As quoted in Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of
the World's Most Colorful Company (2004) by Owen W.
Linzmayer

57. On Being the Best

58. 37.0
The only way to do great work is to love what you
do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.
Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart,
you'll know when you find it.
Address at Stanford University (2005)

59. 38.0
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used
to an environment where excellence is expected.

60. On the Purpose of Life

61. 39.0
I think if you do something and it turns out
pretty good, then you should go do something else
wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure
out what's next.

62. 40.0
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living
someone else's life.
Address at Stanford University (2005)

63. 41.0
We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise
why else even be here?

64. And one last thing…

65. 42.0
I would trade all of my technology for an
afternoon with Socrates
Newsweek (29 October 2001)

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