This is an old revision of the document!
“Think different. • Original Ad”
Yes. And there’s a really interesting back story, especially because this is one of those quotes that has been badly misattributed for decades.
### The short answer
The passage is from Apple’s 1997 “Think Different” advertising campaign, specifically the commercial commonly called “Here’s to the Crazy Ones.” It was not originally written by Steve Jobs, despite the enormous number of websites that attribute it to him. ([The Crazy Ones][1])
The primary creative force behind the copy was Rob Siltanen, then creative director and managing partner at Apple’s advertising agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day. Ken Segall was also involved in the campaign and refinement of the work. ([MJS.ART][2])
And the story of how it got onto television is actually much better than the quote itself.
### The 1997 Apple crisis
Steve Jobs had just returned to Apple.
Apple was struggling badly. Jobs had been pushed out of the company in 1985, and when he returned in 1997, Apple was in a very different place from the company we remember today.
The advertising campaign wasn't initially about selling a particular computer.
It was about reminding people what Apple stood for.
The result was “Think Different.”
The campaign debuted on September 28, 1997, just days after Jobs became Apple's interim CEO. The famous television commercial showed black-and-white images of people such as Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon, Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, Picasso, Edison and others. ([CBS News][3])
And notably, the commercial didn't show off an Apple product, price, processor, benchmark or feature.
It sold an idea.
### Here's where the story gets REALLY interesting
According to Rob Siltanen's account, he wrote the basic “Crazy Ones” concept.
He had written phrases along the lines of:
“To the crazy ones. Here's to the misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.”
And he envisioned the closing idea about people crazy enough to believe they could change the world. ([CBS News][4])
But when Jobs initially saw the proposed commercial, he hated it.
David Pogue's recent account of the story describes Jobs reacting extremely negatively to the first version, essentially saying that he expected something more like *Dead Poets Society* and dismissing the agency's work as advertising-agency garbage. ([CBS News][4])
Siltanen was so frustrated that he reportedly told his boss to find somebody else to finish the job.
Then came the remarkable turnaround.
About 17 days before the commercial was scheduled to air, Jobs changed his mind.
He called and said he wanted to proceed with the “Crazy Ones” concept. ([CBS News][4])
### And then there's the Steve Jobs attribution problem
This is where the historical record gets messy.
Jobs became so closely associated with the campaign that the words effectively became part of the Steve Jobs mythology.
There was even an unaired version narrated by Jobs himself. The broadcast commercial, however, was narrated by actor Richard Dreyfuss. ([www.posterama.co][5])
So people heard Jobs' voice, saw Jobs' Apple, and associated the philosophy with Jobs.
Later accounts—including Walter Isaacson's biography—also contributed to the impression that Jobs himself wrote the words.
But Siltanen has publicly disputed that version of events.
And that's why you will find the quote attributed variously to:
* Steve Jobs * Rob Siltanen * Apple * “Apple's Think Different campaign”
The safest historical attribution is:
Rob Siltanen / TBWA\Chiat\Day, for Apple's 1997 “Think Different” campaign, with contributions and refinement from the creative team and Steve Jobs' involvement in the final campaign.
### One other fascinating detail
The wording you posted isn't quite the earliest/fullest version of the campaign.
There were print versions and longer versions of the “Crazy Ones” manifesto. Some versions included additional language about what these people invent, imagine, heal, explore, create and inspire. ([Virtual Teacher][6])
The famous television version was deliberately stripped down.
And that was part of the genius.
Apple wasn't saying:
“Buy our computer because it's faster.”
It was saying:
“You're one of them.”
That's a radically different advertising strategy.
—
And given the Cranky Cynic material you've been developing, I think there's an even more interesting story hiding here:
The quote itself is about people who challenge accepted wisdom — yet the history of the quote has itself been distorted by accepted wisdom.
Everybody remembers Steve Jobs said it.
The more complicated truth is that an advertising creative wrote it, Jobs initially hated it, Jobs eventually embraced it, and the world subsequently turned it into a Steve Jobs quote.
That's almost *perfect* Cranky Cynic material.
If you're thinking about using this as one of your “Tech History's Biggest Lies” stories, I'd absolutely pursue the deeper history. ([CBS News][4])
[1]: https://www.thecrazyones.it/spot-en.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Think different. • Original Ad” [2]: https://mjs.art/crazy-ones/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Here's To The Crazy Ones | Text Version | MJS.ART” [3]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-jobs-thought-different/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Steve Jobs thought different - CBS News” [4]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/book-excerpt-apple-the-first-50-years-by-david-pogue/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Book excerpt: \”Apple: The First 50 Years\“ by David Pogue - CBS News” [5]: https://www.posterama.co/blogs/news/13414153-apple-think-different?utm_source=chatgpt.com “A quick guide to Apple's Think Different campaign (2026) – www.posterama.co” [6]: https://www.virtualteacher.com.au/crazy-ones/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Here's to the Crazy Ones, Apple TV Ad 1997”
It’s not an isolated Emerson quote, but more importantly, it is almost certainly not Emerson’s work at all.
This is one of those fascinating quotation-history rabbit holes—and it fits *very* nicely with your “Tech History’s Biggest Lies” / debunking theme.
### The short version
The passage commonly titled “Success” or “What Is Success?” is widely and incorrectly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Emerson Society actually published a scholarly examination of the attribution and concluded that it is not Emerson's. ([Emerson Society][1])
The wording you quoted:
“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons…”
is a later version of a passage that traces back to Bessie Anderson Stanley, who wrote an essay/definition of success around 1904–1905.
Her version began:
“He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much…”
and appeared in connection with a contest associated with Joseph Mitchell Chapple's *Heart Throbs*. ([Emerson Society][1])
Then, decades later, the wording evolved into the version you quoted, and Emerson's name somehow got attached to it.
### And there's an interesting twist
The exact wording you're asking about appears to have an intermediate history.
In 1951, newspaper columnist Albert E. Wiggam published a version extremely close to the one now attributed to Emerson, describing it as an abridged version of something Emerson supposedly wrote. That appears to be one of the important steps in the creation of the Emerson attribution. ([WIST Quotations][2])
So the genealogy is roughly:
Bessie Anderson Stanley — 1904/05 ↓ published in *Heart Throbs* ↓ later versions/rewritings ↓ Albert E. Wiggam — 1951 version ↓ attributed to Emerson ↓ countless books, websites, posters, greeting cards, etc. ↓ “Ralph Waldo Emerson” becomes accepted as the author
And here's the kicker: scholars have searched Emerson's actual writings and have not found this passage in his work. ([Emerson Society][1])
So if you're asking because you found it attached to Emerson and wondered *“Wait a minute, is this actually from one of his essays?”* — your skepticism is justified.
It isn't a passage from *The Conduct of Life*, *Self-Reliance*, or another Emerson work. It's a misattribution that acquired a life of its own.
And honestly, this is exactly the kind of story that makes a great “the history is wrong” segment: the quote is so familiar that people stop asking where it actually came from.
[1]: https://emersonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/esp-11-1-2000.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com “y^cf Volume 11, Number 1” [2]: https://wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/46825/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Emerson, Ralph Waldo - (Misattributed) | WIST Quotations”
The Guru 42 Universe is not run by a university professor with a team of editors and advisers working to developing a website. Tom Peracchio is simply someone who loves technology and history and is amazed by how little people know about the great minds in the world of technology.
Support Guru 42 efforts by your small donation at Buy me a coffee