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Steve Jobs

125 quotes

“You're ripping us off! I trusted you, and now you're stealing from us!”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Steve Jobs reactions on Microsoft Windows 1.0 (November 1983)
“Was George Orwell right about 1984?”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Keynote address at Apple's annual sales conference first introducing the Macintosh "1984" commercial, which ends with the announcer saying "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 19…
“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.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview about the release of the Macintosh (24 January 1984) - (online video)
“It is hard to think that a $2 billion company with 4,300-plus people couldn't compete with six people in blue jeans.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Apple's lawsuit against him, following his resignation to form NeXT, as quoted in Newsweek (30 September 1985)
“Real artists ship.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They're babes in the woods. I think I can help turn Alvy and Ed into businessmen.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Pixar co-founders Alvy Ray Smith and Edwin Catmull, as quoted in TIME magazine (1 September 1986)
“If, for some reason, we make some big mistake and IBM wins, my personal feeling is that we are going to enter a computer Dark Ages for about twenty years.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the early rivalry between Macintosh and "IBM-compatible" computers based on Microsoft's DOS, as quoted in Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward (1987) by Jeffrey S. Young, p. 235
“I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I'm only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I've got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his expulsion from any position of authority at Apple, after having invited John Sculley to become CEO, as quoted in Playboy (September 1987)
“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A comment he made in persuading John Sculley to become Apple's CEO, as quoted in Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple: A Journey of Adventure, Ideas, and the Future (1987) by John Sculley and John A. Byrne
“It's more fun to be a pirate than to join the Navy.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At a retreat in September 1982, as quoted in John Sculley and John A. Byrne, Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple – A Journey of Adventure, Ideas, and the Future (1987), p. 157
“Woz and I very much liked Bob Dylan's poetry, and we spent a lot of time thinking about a lot of that stuff. This was California. You could get LSD fresh made from Stanford. You could sleep on the beach at night with your girlfriend. California has a sense of experimentation and a sense of openness—openness to new possibilities.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: interview in Playboy magazine (February 1985)
“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Steve Jobs, the Journey Is the Reward (1988) by Jeffrey S. Young
“You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Inc. Magazine for its "The Entrepreneur of the Decade Award" (1 April 1989)
“It'll make your jaw drop.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the first NeXT Computer, as quoted in The New York Times (8 November 1989)
“It's rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“<!-- Playboy: Then for now, aren't you asking home-computer buyers to invest $3000 in what is essentially an act of faith?”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What a computer is to me is it's the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Memory and Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of Congress (1991); this has sometimes been paraphrased "Computers are like a bicycle for our minds.
“My opinion is that the only two computer companies that are software-driven are Apple and NeXT, and I wonder about Apple.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Fortune (26 August 1991)
“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.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the success of Bill Gates and Microsoft, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993)
“When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview Steve Jobs: Visionary Entrepreneur by Santa Clara Valley Historical Association (1994) Steve Jobs: Visionary Entrepreneur, Silicon Valley Historical Association] Steve Jobs: Secrets of Life quote, Santa Clara …
“John Sculley ruined Apple and he ruined it by bringing a set of values to the top of Apple which were corrupt and corrupted some of the top people who were there, drove out some of the ones who were not corruptible, and brought in more corrupt ones and paid themselves collectively tens of millions of dollars and cared more about their own glory and wealth than they did about what built Apple in the first place — which was making great computers for people to use.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement in The Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program oral history" (20 April 1995)
“We believe it's the biggest advance in animation since Walt Disney started it all with the release of Snow White 50 years ago.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Toy Story as quoted in Fortune (18 September 1995)
“If I knew in 1986 how much it was going to cost to keep Pixar going, I doubt if I would have bought the company.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Fortune (18 September 1995)
“You know, I've got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can't say any more than that it's the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Fortune (18 September 1995)
“Jobs: Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians. They also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world. But if it hadn’t been computer science, these people would have been doing amazing things in other fields. We all brought to this a sort of "liberal arts" air, an attitude that we wanted to pull the best that we saw into this field. You don’t get that if you are very narrow.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation. That's over. Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it's going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of this decade.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing" in WIRED magazine (February 1996)
“When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in WIRED magazine (February 1996)
“[Miele] really thought the process through. They did such a great job designing these washers and dryers. I got more thrill out of them than I have out of any piece of high tech in years.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On design excellence, in WIRED magazine (February 1996)
“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 thoroughly understand something — chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed with Wired: Gary Wolf. Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing (February 1996)
“If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it's worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Fortune (19 February 1996)
“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.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires (1996)
“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.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Triumph of the Nerds (1996)
“I am saddened, not by Microsoft's success — I have no problem with their success. They've earned their success, for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Triumph of the Nerds (1996)
“We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Triumph of the Nerds (1996)
“We hired truly great people and gave them the room to do great work. A lot of companies [...] hire people to tell them what to do. We hire people to tell us what to do. We figure we're paying them all this money; their job is to figure out what to do and tell us.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Steve Jobs, 1996, Fresh Air radio interview by Terry Gross, npr.org, audio 26:30/31:05
“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.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Bill Gates as quoted in "Creating Jobs" in The New York Times (12 January 1997)
“You‘ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May 1997, World Wide Developers Conference (online video)52:15/52:22
“The products suck! There's no sex in them anymore!”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On products at Apple, just before his return to it BusinessWeek (July 1997)
“Apple has some tremendous assets, but I believe without some attention, the company could, could, could — I'm searching for the right word — could, could die.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his return as interim CEO of Apple, as quoted in TIME magazine (18 August 1997)
“Nobody has tried to swallow us since I've been here. I think they are afraid how we would taste.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At the annual Apple shareholder meeting (22 April 1998)
“It looks like it's from another planet. A good planet. A planet with better designers”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction of the first iMac computer in Cupertino, California, (6 May 1998)
“iMac is next year's computer for $1,299, not last year's computer for $999.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction of the first iMac computer in Cupertino, California, (6 May 1998)
“But in the end, for something this complicated, it's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in (25 May 1998)
“The product lineup was too complicated and the company was bleeding cash. A friend of the family asked me which Apple computer she should buy. She couldn’t figure out the differences among them and I couldn’t give her clear guidance, either. I was appalled that there was no Apple consumer computer priced under $2,000. We are replacing all of those desktop computers with one, the Power Mac G3. We are dropping five of six national retailers—meeting their demand has meant too many models at too many price points and too much markup.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May 1998. Quoted in Richard Rumelt, "Good Strategy, Bad Strategy", pg 13.
“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.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Fortune (9 November 1998); also quoted in "TIME digital 50" in TIME digital archive (1999)
“I think Pixar has the opportunity to be the next Disney — not replace Disney — but be the next Disney.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in BusinessWeek (23 November 1998)
“I found that there were these incredibly great people at doing certain things, and that you couldn't replace one of these people with 50 average people. They could just do things that no number of average people could do.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Steve Jobs at 44" by Michael Krantz, TIME magazine (10 October 1999)
“Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don’t know any better.”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“<!-- Rolling Stone: It's been 10 years since the Macintosh was introduced. When you look around at the technological landscape today, what's most surprising to you?”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“<!-- Rolling Stone: Nevertheless, you've often talked about how technology can empower people, how it can change their lives. Do you still have as much faith in technology today as you did when you started out 20 years ago?”
Steve Jobs (1955–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source