Today is the two year anniversary of Steve Jobs’s death.
He was an iconoclast and often polarizing, but never afraid to tell you exactly what he thought, whether it was during a public speech or a private conversation.
Wired and the Wall Street Journal shared some great roundups of their favorite Steve Jobs quotes when his failing health required him to step down as CEO of Apple. We selected a few that were especially awesome.
The 13 Most Memorable Quotes From Steve Jobs
Incredible words from an incredible businessman, designer, and fellow human.
On computers
“It takes these very simple-minded instructions—‘Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it’s greater than this other number’––but executes them at a rate of, let’s say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic.”
[Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
On design
“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.”
[BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998]
The best sales line ever?
“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”
[The line he used to lure John Sculley into becoming Apple’s CEO, according to Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple]
On character
“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]
On good design
“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
[BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998]
On his outlook
“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.”
[The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993]
On his role at Apple
“This is not a one-man show. What’s reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there’s a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they’re not losers. What they didn’t have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.”
[BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998]
Having pride in your product
Playboy: “Are you saying that the people who made PCjr don’t have that kind of pride in the product?”
Jobs: “If they did, they wouldn’t have made the PCjr.”
[Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
He’ll always come back
“I’ll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I’ll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I’m not there, but I’ll always come back.”
[Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
Have faith in the future
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. 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.”
[Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
On your working life
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and 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.”
[Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
On the importance of death
“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.”
[Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
Don’t sit still
“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.”
[NBC Nightly News, May 2006]
译文
这些话，是乔布斯给世间留下的真正伟大礼物
两年前的这个时候，也就是北京时间10月6日清晨，乔布斯逝世的消息从美国传来。你可还记得那个时刻给你无言的冲击？——虽然，乔布斯的身体状况变差并非突然发生的新闻。
美国时间10月5日，是乔布斯逝世两周年的日子。照例，怀念依旧。他走后两年，苹果依然是一家市值高达4383亿美元的公司，他家门口院落里的苹果树，还挂着累累的果实，只是熟了的苹果掉在草地上，无人拾落之景显出几分寥落。
或许，苹果最终会熟透，苹果最终会被后起更富有创新性的公司超越，但最终的最终，我们应该意识到，伟大人物留给世间的，绝不止是成形的作品、产品、技术或某家公司，还有一种他（她）所发掘、代表、引领的某种独特精神。这精神与文化，是他们留给世界真正的伟大礼物。
所以，现在，来重温下这些乔布斯留下的箴言吧！每读一次，就获得一次深思与激励。乔布斯是一个无与伦比的演讲者与推销者，在他56岁的生命中，说过的金句比以下Business Insider网站列出的13条要多得多——有些甚至是更加精彩的的句子。如果你曾记得乔布斯别的哪句话曾经激励或启发了你，欢迎评论补充。谢谢。
关于计算机
“计算机要对这些简单的指令进行处理——‘调用个数值，把它跟现有的数值相加，并将结果写在这儿，看一看是不是比另外一个数值大’——但要以某种速度执行这些任务，比如每秒100万次。当计算机以每秒100万次的速度运行时，结果就像是魔法。”
[1985年2月，《花花公子》]
关于设计
“依靠所谓的小组讨论去设计产品真的很难，在大多数情况下，人们根本就不知道自己需要什么产品，直到你展示给他们。”
[1998年5月，《商业周刊》]
最好的推销金句
“你是想卖一辈子的糖水还是想改变世界？”
[乔布斯在督促约翰·斯考利加入苹果成为苹果CEO之时]
关于成长
“我是我知道的唯一一个在一年中损失 2.5 亿美元的人，这对我的成长很有帮助。”
[《苹果机密2.0》]
关于好的设计
“‘专注和简单’是我一直坚信的产品设计原则。开发出简单易用的产品比开发出复杂的产品要困难得多，因为只有在你的思维极其清晰的情况下才能设计出简单的产品，虽然这需要下苦功夫，但却是值得的，如果你真的能够做到这一点，世界就会在你脚下。”
[1998年5月，《商业周刊》]
他的远景
“成为坟墓中最富有的人对我来说毫无意义，能够在晚上睡觉前说声我今天做了了不起的事，这才是我在乎的。”
[1993年5月，《华尔街日报》]
关于他在苹果的角色
“苹果并不是我一个人表演的地方，苹果的复兴来源于两点：一是公司里有很多有才华的才，二是他们有卓越的管理团队。多年来，很多天才员工听到外界说他们是失败者，其中有些人连自己都快信。但他们不是失败者。他们缺少的是好的教练和的计划。现在，他们终于有了。”
[1998年5月，《商业周刊》]
要为你的产品而骄傲
花花公子：你是说那些制造个人电脑的家伙并不以产品为傲？
乔布斯：如果他们有，那他们就不会做出那样的个人电脑。
[1985年2月，《花花公子》]
与苹果的关系
“我会永远和苹果保持联系。我希望在我的人生中，我的生命线和苹果的生命线永远交织在一起，像一块织绵。也许有一段时间我会不在苹果，但我一定会回到苹果的。”
[1985年2月，《花花公子》]
对未来的信念
“当你在向前展望的时候，你不可能将这些片断串连起来；你只能在回顾的时候将点点滴滴串连起来。所以你必须相信这些片断会在你未来的某一天串连起来。你必须要相信某些东西：你的勇气、目的、生命、因缘，所有种种。这个过程从来没有让我沉沦，只是让我的生命更加地与众不同而已。”
[2005年1月，在斯坦福大学做的毕业演讲]
关于工作
“你的工作将会占据生活中很大的一部分。你只有相信自己所做的是伟大的工作时, 你才能怡然自得。如果你现在还没有找到, 那么继续找、不要停下来、全心全意的去找。与所有你心仪的事物一样，当你找到它时，你就会知道。就像任何伟大的友谊一样，它会变得越来越有价值。所以继续找，直到你找到它，不要停下来！”
[2005年1月，在斯坦福大学做的毕业演讲]
关于死亡之重要
“没有人想死，即使那些梦想上天堂的人，也并不急于到那里。然而，死亡却是我们所有人的归宿，没有人能够逃脱它。事实上也应该如此。死亡就像生命中惟一最好的发明。它是改变生命的代理人。只有清除掉了所有老朽的东西，才能为新生事物腾出空间。现在，你是新生事物，但是在不久的将来，你就会慢慢变老，而被清除掉。抱歉，我把这事说得这样戏剧性，但事实就是如此。”
[2005年1月，在斯坦福大学做的毕业演讲]
不要停留在一件事情上
“如果你已经出色地完成了某件工作，你就应该尝试其它有意义的事情，不要再一件事情上停留太久，多想想下一步该做什么。”
[2006年5月，NBC晚间新闻]