Genius always finds itself a century too early.

If anyone has a vested interest in space solar power, it would have to be me.

I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them.

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.

Apple has given me a platform to spread music. They’re giving us Latinos a chance to shine.

I was born in Africa. I came to California because it’s really where new technologies can be brought to fruition, and I don’t see a viable competitor.

For the first time we’re allowing developers who don’t work at Facebook to develop applications just as if they were. That’s a big deal because it means that all developers have a new way of doing business if they choose to take advantage of it. There are whole companies that are forming whose only product is a Facebook Platform application.

Of all the inventions of humans, the computer is going to rank near or at the top as history unfolds and we look back. It is the most awesome tool that we have ever invented. I feel incredibly lucky to be at exactly the right place in Silicon Valley, at exactly the right time, historically, where this invention has taken form.

Information, education, skills, healthcare, livelihood, financial inclusion, small and village enterprises, opportunities for women, conservation of natural resources, distributed clean energy – entirely new possibilities have emerged to change the development model.

Our goal is to make the best devices in the world, not to be the biggest.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

Young people can create beautiful things.

We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.

What turns me on about the digital age, what excited me personally, is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. You see, it used to be that if you wanted to make a record of a song, you needed a studio and a producer. Now, you need a laptop.

Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.

Capitalism has shortfalls. It doesn’t necessarily take care of the poor, and it underfunds innovation, so we have to offset that.

Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.

For instance, I’m always fascinated to see whether, given the kind of fairly known and established form called popular music, whether there is some magic combination that nobody has hit upon before.

It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

You need to think outside the box. You need to think differently if you want to sustain what, for me, is my peak performance: the very best that I can achieve as an athlete every day.

I was a peripheral visionary. I could see the future, but only way off to the side.

You can’t really imagine music without technology.

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

We will explore the mysteries of science and harness the power of technology and innovation. We will realise the opportunities of the digital world. Our youth will learn more from – and with – each other.

When the PC was launched, people knew it was important.

In the material sciences these are and have been, and are most surely likely to continue to be heroic days.

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

Whenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.

I invented the cordless extension cord.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

Innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.

The over-all point is that new technology will not necessarily replace old technology, but it will date it. By definition. Eventually, it will replace it. But it’s like people who had black-and-white TVs when color came out. They eventually decided whether or not the new technology was worth the investment.

By the mid-’60s, recorded music was much more like painting than it was like traditional music. When you went into the studio, you could put a sound down, then you could squeeze it around, spread it all around the canvas.

With tech companies, whoever’s the leader is always questioned, you know. They say, ‚Is this the end of them?‘ And – there’s more – more times people think that’s the case than it really is the case.

The real story of Facebook is just that we’ve worked so hard for all this time. I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? I mean, we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.

Art is to be free. Design is to fix.

As our case is new, we must think and act anew.

If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.

I do think there is a lot of potential if you have a compelling product and people are willing to pay a premium for that. I think that is what Apple has shown. You can buy a much cheaper cell phone or laptop, but Apple’s product is so much better than the alternative, and people are willing to pay that premium.

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

I’ll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I’ll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I’m not there, but I’ll always come back.

The idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

I am excited to partner with Under Armour to bring game-changing sleepwear, with the same bioceramics technology I use, to athletes all around the world.

I think that the idea of having a different approach to every single one of my albums is so exciting to me. I never want to make the same record twice. Why do it? What’s the point?

Stand-up can take you in so many different places, man. So many doors can be opened up from stand-up comedy, and the first one that was opened up for me was acting. But you can go from acting to being a TV personality to being a radio personality to being a writer to being a producer, to just being a visionary, to voiceover work.

Woz is living his own life now. He hasn’t been around Apple for about five years. But what he did will go down in history.

You can’t say civilization don’t advance… in every war they kill you in a new way.

Entrepreneurs are natural problem-solvers, which means that we always have ideas for new businesses popping into our heads. Having a lot of options is great, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on one when you are keen to move onto the next.