"When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth."
"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, 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." Stanford Commencement Speech, 2005
I still do that every morning.
[1] Some versions of this idea use hour, and I've heard someone say "second". How do you live each second as if it were your last? No one who does this would last long; there's no point in doing most of what we do if we're going to die in the next second, right? But maybe people who say "hour" or "second" are just betraying that they don't really mean it.
* Time, 2005-10-24
* On why Jobs chose to override engineers who thought the iMac wasn't feasible.""Nope, sir. Can't do it. Can't be done. Can't put a computer in a plastic case with the monitor."
I'm sure they are all authentic but that's one I can really imagine him saying.