Our friends up north (Microsoft) spend over five billion dollars on research and development and all they seem to do is copy Google and Apple. WWDC, August 2006.

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 from PepsiCo as Apple's CEO.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

The products suck! There's no sex in them anymore! On Gil Amelio's lackluster reign, July 1997.

Pretty much, Apple and Dell are the only ones in this industry making money. They make it by being Wal-Mart. We make it by innovation.

Apple's market share is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes's or Porsche's in the automotive market. What's wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?

If you have an apple and I have an apple, and we exchange apples, we both still only have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we exchange ideas, we each now have two ideas.

Nobody has tried to swallow us since I've been here. I think they are afraid how we would taste. Apple shareholder meeting, 1998-04-22.

It wasn't that Microsoft was so brilliant or clever in copying the Mac, it's that the Mac was a sitting duck for 10 years. That's Apple's problem: Their differentiation evaporated.

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. 1996-02-19

I get asked a lot why Apple's customers are so loyal. It's not because they belong to the Church of Mac! That's ridiculous.

Pixar is the most technically advanced creative company; Apple is the most creatively advanced technical company. 2005-02-21

It is hard to think that a $2 billion company with 4,300-plus people couldn't compete with six people in blue jeans. On Apple's lawsuit following his resignation to form NeXT, 1985-09-30.

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.

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. September 1987.

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. February 1996.

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. 1997-08-18

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. 1995-09-18

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.

The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.