Steve Jobs' Speech Continues To Inspire Millions 21 Years Later

• 25.08.2026, 12:46

This is one of the most popular quotes at graduation ceremonies.

It has been 21 years since Steve Jobs gave his famous speech to Stanford University graduates, yet his closing line remains one of the most quoted lines from commencement speeches, according to 19FortyFive.

On June 12, 2005, the 50-year-old Apple founder addressed the graduates and shared three stories from his life—about serendipitous decisions, being fired from his own company, and his battle with cancer. Concluding his speech, Jobs said, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

However, these words were not Jobs’ own. He specifically noted that he had taken them from the last page of the *Whole Earth Catalog*, where they were printed as a sort of parting message to readers.

By the time of his speech, Jobs had already undergone surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Six years later, he stepped down as Apple’s CEO and died on October 5, 2011, at the age of 56.

The power of his speech lay not only in success stories. Jobs spoke to the graduates about death and the finitude of human life, urging them not to put off important decisions.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life”—one of the key messages of the speech, which, two decades later, continues to resonate far beyond Stanford.