Walter Isaacson quotes

Walter Isaacson is an American author, journalist, and professor known for his biographies of influential figures. His works include bestsellers on Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, and Albert Einstein. He has contributed greatly to popularizing the histories of science, technology, and innovation. Here are 51 of his quotes:

I think one problem we've had is that people who are smart and creative and innovative as engineers went into financial engineering.

Walter Isaacson

Terrorism is a horrible thing that is the great threat to civilization on our planet.

Walter Isaacson

When there are multiple versions of a story, you really have three ways to go. You can pick the most sensational version. You can try to balance things in your gut to get to what you think is the honest truth. Or you can err on the side of kindness.

Walter Isaacson

You know, one of these things that happened in the '60s and '70s was this confluence of, sort of, a counter-culture with computer culture.

Walter Isaacson

The creativity that can occur when a feel for both the humanities and the sciences combine in one strong personality was the topic that most interested me in my biographies of Franklin and Einstein, and I believe that it will be a key to creating innovative economies in the twenty-first century.

Walter Isaacson

What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they're dragging you down. They're turning you into Microsoft. They're causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.

Walter Isaacson

One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.

Walter Isaacson

If you act like you can do something, then it will work.

Walter Isaacson

People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint.

Walter Isaacson

On the day he unveiled the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done. Jobs responded by scoffing, "Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?

Walter Isaacson

The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter. The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don't really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music.

Walter Isaacson

Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius.

Walter Isaacson

I think the biggest innovations of the twenty-first century will be the intersection of biology and technology. A new era is beginning, just like the digital one was when I was his age.

Walter Isaacson

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)

Walter Isaacson

Asked about the fact that Apple's iTunes software for Windows computers was extremely popular, Jobs joked, 'It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.

Walter Isaacson

Innovation requires articulation.

Walter Isaacson

I think right now we need to look back at the founding values of our country. Rise above partisanship, be less bitter when it comes to important matters that have to be solved.

Walter Isaacson

We have to compete in a universe of 200 networks, so we have to carve out our own niche, and to me, that niche is just basic shoe-leather journalism with some good journalists at the helm you can trust as presenters.

Walter Isaacson

When you write biographies, whether it's about Ben Franklin or Einstein, you discover something amazing: They are human.

Walter Isaacson

What Einstein was able to do was - to use a cliche - think out of the box.

Walter Isaacson

I think it's really good that you have great competition among news networks, and for that matter all the networks in general. It's bringing more and more people in to watching the news.

Walter Isaacson

I've asked Jobs why he didn't get an operation then and he said, 'I didn't want my body to be opened. I didn't want to be violated in that way.'

Walter Isaacson