(CNN) — Many of Steve Jobs’ most inspiring and quotable lines come from his famous 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, when he told assembled graduates, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
But the late Apple co-founder, who died a year ago Friday, had many other colorful and insightful things to say.
Here are 10 of his better quotes, culled from “I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words,” edited by George Beahm.
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1. “What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” (film “Memory & Imagination,” 1990)
2. “I end up not buying a lot of things, because I find them ridiculous.” (The Independent, 2005)
3. “I think death is the most wonderful invention of life. It purges the system of these old models that are obsolete.” (Playboy, 1985)
4. “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” (Apple Worldwide Developers’ Conference, 1997)
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5. “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.” (CNNMoney/Fortune, 1993)
6. “My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.” (CNNMoney/Fortune, 2008)
7. “If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much. You have to be willing to take whatever you’ve done and whoever you were and throw them away.” (Playboy, 1985)
8. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” (“The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs,” 2001)
9. “My model for business is the Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other, and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” (“60 Minutes,” 2003)
10. “I would trade all my technology for an afternoon with Socrates.” (Newsweek, 2001)
