Steve Jobs: Our favourite quotes

Steve Jobs, who died last night, was endlessly quotable. To remember this tech visionary, we've collected together some of our favourite nuggets of Jobsian wit and wisdom. 

Steve on being fired as Apple CEO

"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."
               - From Playboy, 1987

"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... It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. "
               - From his speech at Stanford University, 2005

"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."
               - From Fortune, 1996

"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."
               - From Fortune, 1995

"The products suck! There's no sex in them anymore!"
               - Talking of Apple's products before his return. From BusinessWeek, 1997

"Everyone wants a MacBook Pro because they are so bitchin'."
               - A more positive Steve on the MacBook Pros at the Apple Annual Shareholder Meeting, 2006.

Steve on Microsoft

"I am saddened, not by Microsoft's success -- I have no problem with their success. They've earned their success, for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products."
               - Steve on Microsoft in Triumph of the Nerds, 1996

"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products."
               - Steve cuts loose in Triumph of the Nerds, 1996

"I wish him 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."
               - Steve on Bill Gates in The New York Times, 1997

"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 on Bill Gates and Microsoft in The Wall Street Journal, 1993

"Our friends up north spend over $5bn on research and development and all they seem to do is copy Google and Apple."
               - Steve having another dig at Microsoft at the Worldwide Developers Conference, 2006

Steve on life

"I'm the only person I know that's lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year... It's very character-building."
               - From Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World's Most Colorful Company, 2005

"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."
               - Steve with a decidedly positive outlook in his speech at Stanford University, 2005

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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."
               - Steve on love at Stanford University, 2005

"I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
               - More from Steve at Stanford University, 2005             

"One more thing..."
               - The iconic words with which Steve launched many products at Apple keynotes