Walter Isaacson

Writer

1952-05-20

Books by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs
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Einstein
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The Code Breaker
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Quotes by Walter Isaacson

Nevertheless, by dint of his personality and controlling instincts, Jobs was soon playing a stronger role. He spewed out a stream of ideas - some reasonable, others wacky - about what Pixar's hardware and software could become. And on his occasional visits to the PIxar offices, he was an inspiring presence. I grew up a Southern Baptist, and we had revival meetings with mesmerizing but corrupt preachers, recounted Alvy Ray Smith. Steve's got it: the power of the tongue and the web of words that catches people up. We were aware of this when we had board meetings, so we developed signals - nose scratching or ear tugs - for when someone had been caught up in Steve's distortion field and he needed to be tugged back to reality.
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Simply handing over your iPod to a friend, your blind date, or the total stranger sitting next to you on the plane opens you up like a book. (Steven Levy)
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Jobs had begun to drop acid by then, and he turned Brennan on to it as well, in a wheat field just outside Sunnyvale. It was great, he recalled. I had been listening to a lot of Bach. All of a sudden the whole field was playing Bach. It was the most wonderful feeling of my life up to that point. I felt like the conductor of this symphony with Bach coming through the wheat.
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Form follows emotion
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As much as Henry Kissinger wanted to attribute historical movement to impersonal forces, he too conceded to the difference personalities make.
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Just because you can't act EVERYWHERE doesn't mean you don't act ANYWHERE. – Madeleine Albright
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Henry Luce to his Time magazine writers: Tell the history of our time through the people who make it.
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When the conventional wisdom of physics seemed to conflict with an elegant theory of his, Einstein was inclined to question that wisdom rather than his theory, often to have his stubbornness rewarded.
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Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.
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Religion was at it's best when it emphasized spiritual experiences rather than received dogma. The juice goes out of Christianity when it becomes too based on faith, rather than living like Jesus or seeing the world as Jesus saw it, he told me. I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don't. It's a great mystery.
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Walter Issacson biographer of Steve Jobs:I remember sitting in his backyard in his garden, one day, and he started talking about God. He [Jobs] said, — Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don't. I think it's 50/50, maybe. But ever since I've had cancer, I've been thinking about it more, and I find myself believing a bit more, maybe it's because I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die, it doesn't just all disappear. The wisdom you've accumulated, somehow it lives on."Then he paused for a second and said, "Yea, but sometimes, I think it's just like an On-Off switch. Click. And you're gone.— And then he paused again and said, — And that's why I don't like putting On-Off switches on Apple devices.—Joy to the WORLD! There IS an after-life!
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If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things - that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline; you have to practice it.
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When the conventional wisdom of physics seemed to conflict with an elegant theory of his, Einstein was inclined to question that wisdom rather than his theory, often to have his stubbornness rewarded.
Read quote
Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.
Read quote
Henry Luce to his Time magazine writers: Tell the history of our time through the people who make it.
Read quote
If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things - that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline; you have to practice it.
Read quote
Just because you can't act EVERYWHERE doesn't mean you don't act ANYWHERE. – Madeleine Albright
Read quote
Simply handing over your iPod to a friend, your blind date, or the total stranger sitting next to you on the plane opens you up like a book. (Steven Levy)
Read quote
Nevertheless, by dint of his personality and controlling instincts, Jobs was soon playing a stronger role. He spewed out a stream of ideas - some reasonable, others wacky - about what Pixar's hardware and software could become. And on his occasional visits to the PIxar offices, he was an inspiring presence. I grew up a Southern Baptist, and we had revival meetings with mesmerizing but corrupt preachers, recounted Alvy Ray Smith. Steve's got it: the power of the tongue and the web of words that catches people up. We were aware of this when we had board meetings, so we developed signals - nose scratching or ear tugs - for when someone had been caught up in Steve's distortion field and he needed to be tugged back to reality.
Read quote
Form follows emotion
Read quote