Echoes

No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life.

Insist on yourself; never imitate.

Do not follow in the footsteps of the old masters, but seek what they sought — and find it in the mountains, the rivers, and the open sky.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Every person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique. Every man's foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never-recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, and be it even the greatest, has already achieved.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's; I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

You know I am not born to tread in the beaten track — the peculiar bent of my nature pushes me on.

I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

The destiny of man is in his own soul.

I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.

Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.

What does your conscience say? — You should become who you are.

I will either find a way or make one.

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.