“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
– Steve Jobs at the Stanford University commencement address in 2005
Beautiful. Here’s the video:
Image: Ryan Katsanes
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
20 responses to “Steve Jobs: “Death Is Very Likely The Best Single Invention Of Life. It Is Life’s Change Agent.””
That was one of the most inspiring 2 paragraphs I have ever read!
Thanks Mr. Jobs
Amazing words…
Not sure if Cult of Mac has permission to use that photo without attribution. Here’s the photo on the photographer’s 500px page: http://500px.com/photo/875827
Now of we could all just remember those words going forward, what an amazing place we’d all live in.
Absolutely amazing words.
Jesus Christ actually defeated death and arose the 3rd day.
salsa037 – that’s a belief in a story that not everyone agrees to believe. Reality is always now, not a was or a will be. Beyond belief, faith and hope there is certitude. Look around and you’ll see quite clearly that “human beings” are actually never being but coming and leaving. No one has ever defeated death because only life lives, having no beginning and no end life simply IS. The rest is all a story apparently happening within the context of life. The question is, who or what are you in the absence of all stories?
Photo credit should go to my friend, Ryan Katsanes, a photographer out of Vancouver, Wa.
There were no better recognition than most of the people find out of his death on the device, which he has developed.
So they say……
if you live to 150, you will never come across a more inspiring speech. Hear it in its entirety.
The man had an other-worldly amount of wisdom it appears