Quotes by Walter Isaacson

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

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

Smart people are a dime a dozen. What matters is the ability to think different... to think out of the box.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

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

Truth

Just being the seeker, somebody whose open to spiritual enlightenment, is in itself the important thing and it's the reward for being a seeker in this world.

— Walter Isaacson

Life

I think when money starts to corrupt journalism, it undermines the journalism, and it undermines the credibility of the product, and you end up not succeeding.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

More generally, I made an effort to leave out things that weren't relevant to the main narrative themes of the book, namely that there were two sides to Steve Jobs: the romantic, poetic, countercultural rebel on one side, and the serious businessperson on the other.

— Walter Isaacson

Success

Polite and velvety leaders, who take care to avoid bruising others, are generally not as effective at forcing change.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

And if you don't have your ears open, you're not going to be able to figure out what you should be doing.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

He said, 'From then on, I realized that I was not just abandoned. I was chosen. I was special.' And I think that's the key to understanding Steve Jobs.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

I think that Benjamin Franklin felt very strongly in foreign policy in this world, that you needed to at least show some humility, especially when you were strong.

— Walter Isaacson

Life

Yeah, I think that his great creation was not any one product but a company in which creativity was connected to great engineering. And that will survive at least while the current people who trained under Steve are there.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

I do think it's important, if you're going to be very creative, to be a seeker.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

I have a strong emotional respect for Steve.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

I think it's very important to have a sense of balance in covering the war, but you don't have to be morally neutral about terrorism.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

I wonder now how tough you have to be to get big things done.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

I've always had an abundance of material about the subjects of my biographies.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

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

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

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

— Walter Isaacson

Life

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

Wisdom

I actually think Bill Gates is conventionally smarter, even though it's a dumb word, but mental processing power - I've watched him use four different screens, process information, get to the right answer, boom boom boom.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

For some people, miracles serve as evidence of God's existence.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom

I think that we shouldn't be fixated all the time on the ups and downs of the weekly ratings, of the quarter-hour ratings.

— Walter Isaacson

Wisdom