As you are growing and changing, the more the outside world tries to reinforce an image of you that it thinks you are, the harder it is to continue to be an artist, which is why a lot of times, artists have to go, “Bye. I have to go. I’m going crazy and I’m getting out of here.” Click to tweet And they go and hibernate somewhere. Maybe later they re-emerge a little differently.

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. Truman Capote

The real embarrassing issue about failure is your own acknowledgement that you’re not a genius, that you’re not as good as you thought you were. […] There’s only one solution: You must embrace failure.

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.

Michelangelo knew a tremendous amount about how to cut stone at the quarry.

The finest dozen computer scientists I know are all musicians. Some are better than others, but they all consider that an important part of their life. I don’t believe that the best people in any of these fields see themselves as one branch of a forked tree. I just don’t see that. People bring these things together a lot.

Anyway, one of our biggest challenges, and the one I think John Sculley and I should be judged on in five to ten years, is making Apple an incredibly great 10 or 20 billion-dollar company. ‘Will it still have the spirit it does today?’ We’re charting new territory.

Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50-50 maybe.

I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.

I’m a long-term kind of person

The theme of the campaign is ‘Think different’. It’s honoring the people who think different, and who move this world forward.

Apple is built on refugees from other companies. These are the extremely bright individual contributors who were troublemakers at other companies.

I think all of us need to be on guard against arrogance which knocks at the door whenever you’re successful.

Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. 

The best answer to anger is silence

The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

Each of us needs what nature gives us, when nature gives it.

The first step: Don’t be anxious. Nature controls it all.

The second step: Concentrate on what you have to do. Fix your eyes on it. Remind yourself that your task is to be a good human being; remind yourself what nature demands of people. Then do it, without hesitation, and speak the truth as you see it. But with kindness. With humility. Without hypocrisy.

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

Nothing natural is evil.

He who follows reason in all things is both tranquil and active at the same time, and also cheerful and collected.

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.

Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance, now, at this very moment – of all external events. That’s all you need.

How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.

You’re subject to sorrow, fear, jealousy, anger and inconsistency. That’s the real reason you should admit that you are not wise.

Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence.

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

For God’s sake, stop honouring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter, or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things.

As the same fire assumes different shapes when it consumes objects differing in shape, so does the one self take the shape of every creature in whom he is present.

A man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season.

Is any man afraid of change? What can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature? And can you take a hot bath unless the wood for the fire undergoes a change? And can you be nourished unless the food undergoes a change? And can anything else that is useful be accomplished without change? Do you not see then that for yourself also to change is just the same, and equally necessary for the universal nature?

Receive without pride, let go without attachment. 

Success or failure is caused more by mental attitude than by mental capacity.

When you have assumed these names – good, modest, truthful, rational, a man of equanimity, and magnanimous – take care that you do not change these names; and if you should lose them, quickly return to them.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Consider that before long you will be nobody and nowhere, nor will any of the things exist that you now see, nor any of those who are now living. For all things are formed by nature to change and be turned and to perish in order that other things in continuous succession may exist.

In a word, if there is a god, all is well; and if chance rules, do not also be governed by it.

So I look for the best and am prepared for the opposite.

Treat whatever happens as wholly natural; not novel or hard to deal with; but familiar and easily handled.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

Confine yourself to the present.

Straight, not straightened.

Those who truly fail in my eyes are the ones who never try at all. The ones who sit on the couch and whine and moan and wait for the world to change for them.

When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.

Such a simple concept, yet so true: that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.