2005-09, Address at Stanford University (2005)
Context: 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.
“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.”
2000s, Address at Stanford University (2005)
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Steve Jobs 150
American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc. 1955–2011Related quotes
Quoted in Variety (December 2005).
Variant: It's like anything in life, visualizing the old man you're going to become: As long as you have a clear picture of that — the life you want to lead — eventually you'll probably get there.
Source: Arch of Triumph: A Novel of a Man Without a Country
Source: Earthsea Books, The Other Wind (2001), Chapter 5 “Rejoining” (p. 284)
"I don't fear death" http://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/mar/15/popandrock1, The Guardian.com, March 15, 2004.
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