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.

Innovation is the distinction between a leader and a follower.

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. Summer 1993.

It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.

I wish him [Bill Gates] 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.

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.

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