Select Quotes

Remember what is is all that is. The alternate reality in which everything is exactly as you think it should be exists only in your mind, and it exists primarily to torture you.

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

The secret of successful speakers? Passion and compassion with a purpose.

A problem clearly stated is a problem half solved.

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his son the hardships that made him rich.

It is a myth, not a mandate, a fable not a logic, and symbol rather than a reason by which men are moved.

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.

The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.

If you want to be truly successful invest in yourself to get the knowledge you need to find your unique factor. When you find it and focus on it and persevere your success will blossom.

A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.

Everything someone does on a daily basis should be traceable back to an annual or quarterly plan.

If you have tried to do something and failed, you are vastly better off than if you had tried to do nothing and succeeded. You must never regret what might have been. The past that did not happen is as hidden from us as the future we cannot see.

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves.

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive

Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction.

The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And 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. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.

It sounds unremarkable and even naïve, but it’s our obsession with making really great products. It’s at the heart of everything we do. I don’t understand how you can exist as a company and not have it.

The vision was so clear, and I had real trouble understanding people’s skepticism. I think lots of people are troubled by the fact that this kind of good idea is always simple and self-evident. When that’s the case, you don’t launch the software, you merely let it loose.

The real fortunes in this country have been made by people who have been right about the business they invested in, and not right about the timing of the stock market.

What appealed to me was that we didn’t try to stuff things down people’s throats, or conceal things. Skype was about giving people exactly what they need, explained so everybody can understand it. And the things people pay for are never surrounded by marketingspeak, obscure offers, or unfair conditions written in fine print.

The Red Herring: Is [Pixar] a hits business, then?
Steve Jobs: Oh, absolutely. But I will put forth my theory to you, because, of course, I get asked this question a lot. My response is very simple—I can only look back at my own history. The Apple 2 was a hit. The Apple 3 was a miss. Lisa was a miss. The Macintosh was a hit. Silicon Valley is a hits business. It’s no less of a hits business than I see in the film business. At least Pixar’s second film doesn’t have to be backwards compatible with its first. So that’s my answer. Life is a hits business as best as I can tell.

The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Put one dumb foot in front of the other and course-correct as you go.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked….A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.

A good plan violently executed today, is far and away better than a perfect plan next week.

If you don’t love others you can’t cook. People who have no love to share eat poorly, and they don’t cook. If you love cooking, you will cook, at whatever level. People who like to be around a table, who like to share—they’ll try to cook, even if it’s only an egg. I would much prefer to eat an egg with friends than caviar with strangers.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

The details are not the details. They make the design.

I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.

The secret to our enduring brand lies in delivering an experience rather than just a collection of products and services.

Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.

He walks around all day using his brainpower to creatively enhance things around him. I’d always thought you had to take the good with the bad. How audacious to think that your job could be perfect all day long. But here was someone doing it.