賈伯斯談生死觀──史丹佛大學演講片段精選

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

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.

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.

這是我最接近死亡的時候，我希望這會是接下來幾十年內最接近的一次。經歷這個階段後，我現在可以比之前認為死亡只是有用且純然的抽象概念時，更肯定地告訴你們這些話：

沒有人想死。即使那些想上天堂的人，也不想先死再上天堂。然而死亡是我們共同的終點，沒有人逃得過。而事情本該如此，因為死亡很可能是生命最棒的一項發明。它是生命傳承的媒介，死亡會送舊迎新。現在，你們是新生代，但在不久的將來，你們也會逐漸年華老去，離開人生的舞台。抱歉講得這麼戲劇化，但這是真的。

你們的時間有限，所以不要浪費時間為別人而活。不要為教條所困──也就是照著別人的想法過活。不要讓他人的吵雜意見淹沒了你內在的聲音。最重要的，要有勇氣去追隨自己的內心與直覺，你的內心與直覺多少已知道你真正想成為什麼樣的人，任何其他事物都是次要的了。