“Stay hungry” doesn’t mean that one should literally stay hungry and starve, but that one shouldn’t get fat, lazy and complacent. In 1954, sportswriters wondered how baseball’s very successful New York Yankees could stay hungry; in 1958, the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager told his team to “stay hungry.” A book, Stay Hungry (1972) by Charles Gaines, about a gym, was made into a 1976 film that starred a young Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 
The Whole Earth Catalog (October 1974) had on its back cover, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs told Stanford graduates in 2005 that he “always wished that” for himself.
 
A related saying to “stay hungry” is “stay thirsty.”
   
 
18 February 1954, Greeley (CO) Tribune, “Pride Spurs Fat Yankees,” pg. 9, col. 7:
NEW YORK (AP)—How do the fat and prosperous Yankees stay “hungry” enough to keep on winning baseball championships?
   
11 December 1958, Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), pg. C3, col. 2:
Brown Tells Pirates
To “Stay Hungry”
The Pittsburgh Pirates had a taste of World Series money but they must stay “hungry” if they want to win the 1959 National League pennant, general manager Joe L. Brown said Wednesday.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Stay hungry.
Author: Charles Gaines
Publisher: Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1972.
Edition/Format:  Book : Fiction : English : [1st ed.]
 
WholeEarth.com
Whole Earth Catalog October 1974
(Pg. 324, back cover—ed.)
Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
 
Wikipedia: Stay Hungry
Stay Hungry is a 1976 dramatic comedy film by director Bob Rafelson from a screenplay by Charles Gaines (adapted from his 1972 novel of the same name). The story centers on a young Birmingham, Alabama, scion, played by Jeff Bridges, who gets involved in a shady real-estate deal. In order to close the deal, he needs to buy a gym building to complete a multi-parcel lot. When he visits the gym, however, he finds himself romantically interested in the receptionist (Sally Field) and drawn to the carefree lifestyle of the Austrian body builder “Joe Santo” (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who is training there for the Mr. Universe competition.
       
Google Books
A Very Desirable Residence
By Clive Doucet
Toronto: Playwrights Co-op
1979, ©1978
Pg. 46:
BANANAS. (...) (he wanders back to his chair, picks up the catalogue) Stay hungry, stay foolish. (he throws it down angrily, his hands thrust deep in his pockets) Damn it. It just isn’t fair. I’m tired. I’m hyper. It’s late.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
More songs about buildings and food
Author: David Byrne; Talking Heads (Musical group)
Publisher: New York : Sire Records, 1978.
Edition/Format:  Music LP : Rock music : English
Contents:
Stay hungry—
 
OCLC WorldCat record 
Stay hungry : a sermon for student recognition day
Author: Warren F Gaston
Publisher: Lima, Ohio : C.S.S. Pub., 1979.
Edition/Format:  Book : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Stay hungry
Author: Dee Snider; Twisted Sister (Musical group)
Publisher: [New York?] : Atlantic, 1984.
Edition/Format:  Music CD : CD audio : Rock music : English
 
Google News Archive
11 November 1984, The Day (New London, CT), “Stewart Brand’s latest ‘Whole Earth’ tome,” pg. C5, col. 3:
He paused in thought, this man who once gave away #20,000 in $100 bills at a party in 1971 to share the profits from “The Last Whole Earth Catalog.” The slogan carried by the book’s Phoenix-like next edition cautioned: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
 
“I’m not particularly hungry,” he said, the blue eyes scouting something a good way from E Dock. “But we can find a way to get hungry again.”
   
OCLC WorldCat record
Stay hungry : how to reach superstar levels of achievement in your life
Author: Steve Moroski; CareerTrack Publications (Firm)
Publisher: [S.l. : CareerTrack, 199-]
Edition/Format:  Audiobook on Cassette : Cassette recording : English
   
OCLC WorldCat record
‘Stay Hungry, Stay Humble’: A conversation with the CEO of Hyundai USA.
Author: RICHARD M SMITH
Publisher: New York, etc., Newsweek, etc.]
Edition/Format:  Article : English
Publication: Newsweek. (May 24, 2010): 56
Database: ArticleFirst
 
Business Insider
The Full Text Of Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech
Jay Yarow|October 06, 2011
Here is the full text of Steve Jobs’ commencement speech to Stanford in 2005. It is one of the greatest reflections on life we’ve ever heard. If you want to watch him give the speech we have the video here.
(...)
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.
 
Thank you all very much.