Steve Jobs Quotes: The Ultimate Collection

Apple Gazette is proud to present the collected wisdom of Steve Jobs. His thoughts on Apple, how he saw himself, and the lessons he learned in life -- it's all here, in the ultimate collection of Steve Jobs quotes. Almost 300 quotes in all!


Topics: Life Before Apple | How He Saw Himself | Building Apple | Macintosh Memories | Returning to Apple | Leadership Style | The Apple Difference | Apple Products | Design | Creativity & Innovation | Technology | Recruiting | Microsoft | Other Companies | Money | Philosophy & Beliefs | Predicting the Future | Personal Stuff | Death | Lessons Learned

steve jobs quotesSteve Jobs Quotes: Apple Products

We had the hardware expertise, the industrial design expertise and the software expertise, including iTunes. One of the biggest insights we have was that we decided not to try to manage your music library on the iPod, but to manage it in iTunes. Other companies tried to do everything on the device itself and made it so complicated that it was useless.

We made the iPod for ourselves, and when you’re doing something for yourself, or your best friend or family, you’re not going to cheese out. If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.

When people look at an iMac, they think the design is really great, but most people don’t understand it’s not skin deep. There’s a reason why, after two years, people haven’t been able to copy the iMac. It’s not just surface. The reason the iMac doesn’t have a fan is engineering. It took a ton of engineering and that’s true for the [Mac Pro] Cube and everything else.

If there was ever a product that catalyzed what’s Apple’s reason for being, it’s this. Because it combines Apple’s incredible technology base with Apple’s legendary ease of use with Apple’s awesome design… it’s like, this is what we do. So if anybody was ever wondering why is Apple on the earth, I would hold this up as a good example. [iPod]

I love it when you can bring really great design and simple capability to something that doesn’t cost much. It was the original vision for Apple. That’s what we tried to do with the first Mac. That’s what we did with the iPod.

We’ve never worried about numbers. In the market place, Apple is trying to focus the spotlight on products, because products really make a difference… Good PR educates people; that’s all it is. You can’t con people in this business. The products speak for themselves.

Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything… One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world.

I think we’re having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we’re always trying to do better.

We used to dream about this stuff. Now we get to build it. It’s pretty great.

I saw a video tape that we weren’t supposed to see. It was prepared for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By watching the tape, we discovered that, at least as of a few years ago, every tactical nuclear weapon in Europe manned by U.S. personnel was targeted by an Apple II computer. Now, we didn’t sell computers to the military; they went out and bought them at a dealer’s, I guess. But it didn’t make us feel good to know that our computers were being used to target nuclear weapons in Europe. The only bright side of it was that at least they weren’t [Radio Shack] TRS-80s! Thank God for that. [1985]

I’ve always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do.

So that’s our approach. Very simple, and we’re really shooting for Museum of Modern Art quality. The way we’re running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let’s make it simple. Really simple.

When you open the box of an iPhone or iPad, we want that tactile experience to set the tone for how you perceive the product.

If you don’t cannibalize yourself, someone else will.

If anybody’s going to make our products obsolete, I want it to be us.

I think really great products come from melding two points of view — the technology point of view and the customer point of view. You need both.


Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

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