Why would a person whose notebook aphorisms decry killing and whose personal morality led him to be a vegetarian go to work for the most brutal murderer of the era? Partly this choice reflects Leonardo’s pragmatism. In a land where the Medici, Sforzas, and Borgias jostled for power, Leonardo was able to time his patronage affiliations well and know when to move on. But there is more. Even as he remained aloof from most current events, he seemed to be attracted to power.

— Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson Quotes

It’s hard to find a buyer for a house that’s on fire.

— Walter Isaacson

Intel’s chips ended up becoming the industry standard, which would haunt Apple when its computers were incompatible with it.

— Walter Isaacson

I thought about the things that will truly affect humanity,” he says. “I came up with three: the internet, sustainable energy, and space travel.

— Walter Isaacson

Even at a young age Lisa began to realize his diet obsessions reflected a life philosophy, one in which asceticism and minimalism could heighten subsequent sensations. “He believed that great harvests came from arid sources, pleasure from restraint,” she noted. “He knew the equations that most people didn’t know: Things led to their opposites.

— Walter Isaacson

You can feel whatever you want about Elon’s behavior,” Gates said, “but there is no one in our time who has done more to push the bounds of science and innovation than he has.

— Walter Isaacson

Gracias started buying more troubled companies. He learned one very big lesson from these ventures: “It’s not the product that leads to success. It’s the ability to make the product efficiently. It’s about building the machine that builds the machine. In other words, how do you design the factory?” It was a guiding principle that Musk would make his own.

— Walter Isaacson

Dan Bricklin, who conceived the first financial spreadsheet program, VisiCalc.

— Walter Isaacson

His plan incorporated the packet-switching concept of Paul Baran and Donald Davies, the suggestion for standardized IMPs proposed by Wes Clark, the theoretical insights of J. C. R. Licklider, Les Earnest, and Leonard Kleinrock, and the contributions of many other inventors.

— Walter Isaacson

When hiring, look for people with the right attitude. Skills can be taught. Attitude changes require a brain transplant.

— Walter Isaacson

He’s willing to just throw his entire being at his mission, and that’s what he expects in return,” he says. “That has a good and bad side. You definitely realize that you’re a tool being used to achieve this larger objective, and that’s great. But sometimes, tools get worn down and he feels he can just replace that tool.

— Walter Isaacson

The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation.

— Walter Isaacson

Bezos was methodical. His motto was gradatim ferociter, or “Step by step, ferociously.

— Walter Isaacson

Gates was good at computer coding, unlike Jobs, and his mind was more practical, disciplined, and abundant in analytic processing power. Jobs was more intuitive and romantic and had a greater instinct for making technology usable, design delightful, and interfaces friendly. He had a passion for perfection, which made him fiercely demanding, and he managed by charisma and scattershot intensity.

— Walter Isaacson

The ideas that come from me and my team would have been completely irrelevant, nowhere, if Steve hadn’t been here to push us, work with us, and drive through all the resistance to turn our ideas into products.

— Walter Isaacson

There is something nice about leaving a little to our imagination. As he knew, the outlines of reality are inherently blurry, leaving a hint of uncertainty that we should embrace. The best way to approach his life is the way he approached the world: filled with a sense of curiosity and an appreciation for its infinite wonders.

— Walter Isaacson

Thus was born the iPod, the device that would begin the transformation of Apple from being a computer maker into being the world’s most valuable company.

— Walter Isaacson

We have reason to believe that Elon is retarded.

— Walter Isaacson

NASA was able to send a man to the moon. Engineers in Silicon Valley were able to devise a way to put a programmable computer on a chip called a microprocessor. And ARPA created a network that could connect distant computers.

— Walter Isaacson

Tim Paterson, who worked for a small firm called Seattle Computer Products.

— Walter Isaacson

He would go on fasts, just as he did as a teenager, and he became sanctimonious as he lectured others at the table on the virtues of whatever eating regimen he was following.

— Walter Isaacson
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