50 inspirational Quotes from Steve Jobs about Innovation and Time

Steve Jobs is an inspiration to many because he did not hesitate to take big risks. He bounced back from defeat time and again to become more successful than before. In 1985, he was ousted out of his own company that he co-founded. A decade later, he returned to turn a struggling business into the world’s most innovative and wealthiest company.

Below are 30 quotes from Steve Jobs that will inspire you to take risks, think big, and have passion for what you do.

1. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs

2. “I always thought of myself as a Humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics…Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.” – Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

3. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs

4. “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” –Steve Jobs

5. “We don’t get a chance to do that many things and everyone should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.” – Fortune, March, 2008

6. “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.” – Steve Jobs
7. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You put so much of your life into this thing. There are such rough moments in time that I think most people give up. I don’t blame them. It’s really tough and it consumes your life.

8. “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.” – Steve Jobs

9. “The greatest thing is when you do put your heart and soul into something over an extended period of time, and it is worth it.” – Steve Jobs

10. “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

11. “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

12. “When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and…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.

13. “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” – Steve Jobs

14. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

15. “My self-identity does not revolve around being a businessman, though I recognize that is what I do. I think of myself more as a person who builds neat things. I like building neat things. I like making tools that are useful to people. I like working with very bright people.

16. I like interacting in the world of ideas, though somehow those ideas have to be tied to some physical reality. One of the things I like the most is dropping a new idea on a bunch of incredibly smart and talented people and then letting them work it out themselves. I like all of that very, very much.” – Esquire, December, 1986

17. “Don’t let the noise of other’s’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” – Stanford University Commencement Speech, 2005

18. “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.” – Stanford University Commencement Speech, 2005

19. “You think, well, focusing is saying yes. No, focusing is about saying no. Focusing is about saying no. And you’ve got to say no, no, no. When you say no, you piss off people.” – Steve Jobs

20. “Details matter, it’s worth waiting to get it right.” – Steve Jobs

21. “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.” – Steve Jobs

22. “I’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.” – World Wide Developers Conference, May 1997
23. “I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.” – Steve Jobs

24. “Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” – Steve Jobs

25. “Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.” – Rolling Stone, June 16, 1994

26. “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.” – Steve Jobs

27. “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” – New York Times Magazine, Nov. 30, 2003

28. “You should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last.” – Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

29. “If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things – that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.” – Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

30. “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently; they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things.