Steve Jobs: Memorable Quotes and Reads

As the world mourns the death of technology's greatest impresario, we remember his lasting legacy through some of his words and ideas. For additional reading material visit Longreads.com, Folklore.org, or check out Wired's tribute page.

 

"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."

 

"We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on."
Interview in Macworld magazine (February 2004) (via Wikipedia)

 

"People say sometimes, "You work in the fastest-moving industry in the world." I don't feel that way... The reason for that is, it seems to take a very unique combination of technology, talent, business and marketing and luck to make significant change in our industry. It hasn't happened that often."
Rollingstone, 1994 interview

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
Stanford Commencement Address

 

"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."
On the success of Bill Gates and Microsoft, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993) (via Wikipedia)

"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."

Excerpts from an Oral History Interview with Steve Jobs, The Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program

 Lead pic courtesy: Mac University Consortium.