My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really

The words of Steve Jobs—“My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time”—ring with the voice of one who stood at the heights of worldly achievement and yet gazed upon the deeper truths of existence. Jobs, who built empires of innovation and reshaped the world of technology, reminds us here that true wealth is not found in possessions, but in the fleeting, sacred gift of time. For all the gold of kings and the riches of nations cannot purchase a single heartbeat once it has passed, nor extend by one breath the measure of our lives.

The ancients also bore witness to this truth. Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, ruler of vast lands and countless legions, wrote in his Meditations that life is but a moment, and that the wise man does not squander his time in vain pursuits. He urged himself daily: Do not waste what is left of your life in speculation, but act justly and love those around you. In this we hear the same wisdom as Jobs: money and power may command much, but they cannot command the inexorable march of time.

History gives us the sobering tale of Alexander the Great. He conquered the known world, amassed treasures beyond imagining, and built cities that bore his name. Yet on his deathbed, still in the vigor of youth, he is said to have commanded that his hands be left outside his coffin—empty—for all to see that even he, master of nations, carried no wealth with him into death. The greatest treasure he had squandered was not his gold, but the time he could never reclaim. Jobs’s words, though born in a modern age, flow from the same eternal river: the things that truly endure—love, creativity, friendship, wonder—cost nothing, yet they are nourished only in the soil of time well spent.

Jobs himself knew the sting of mortality. Stricken with illness, he spoke often of the urgency of life, of the need to live authentically, to follow one’s vision without delay. For sickness stripped away illusions and revealed what was always true: that time is the final measure of wealth. The laughter of family, the spark of creativity, the beauty of a sunset—all these are treasures that belong not to the market, but to the heart. And these, he reminds us, are the favorite things of life, free to all yet often ignored in the chase for money.

The lesson for us is clear: guard your time as the most precious of possessions. Do not squander it in bitterness, in envy, or in endless striving after what does not satisfy. Instead, spend it on what endures—on love freely given, on the pursuit of wisdom, on the building of memories that death itself cannot erase. Money may grow or vanish, but every moment of time is spent once and forever. To waste it is the truest poverty; to honor it is the truest wealth.

Practically, this means choosing with care how we live each day. Set aside time to be with those you love, to listen, to walk, to laugh. Give your energy not only to labor, but to wonder and reflection. Remember that even the simplest joys—the song of a bird, the warmth of the sun, the embrace of a friend—are the treasures Jobs calls us to cherish. For these do not cost money, yet they enrich life more than all the riches of empires.

Thus, Steve Jobs, who lived among the engines of commerce and innovation, speaks here with the wisdom of the ancients: that life’s greatest resource is not the coin in our hands, but the time in our days. Let us, then, live as wise stewards of this sacred gift, spending it not in vanity, but in love, in creativity, and in reverence for the fleeting, precious beauty of our mortal years.