Bill Gates Quotes

“Robots will play an important role in providing physical assistance and even companionship for the elderly.”

“I have drifted away from thinking about these philanthropic things. And it was only as the wealth got large enough and Melinda and I had talked about the view that wealth wasn't something that would be good to just pass to the children.”

“I think philanthropy is also growing and catching on. Figuring out how the philanthropy sector, which is quite small compared to the private sector, which is the biggest by far, and then the governments, you know, even in these poor countries over time has to take on these key responsibilities. How does philanthropy accelerate that? Drive the kind of innovations, make sure they get used well. So it plays this kind of special role.”

“The most amazing philanthropists are people who are actually making a significant sacrifice.”

“The best teacher is very interactive.”

“Convert bad news to good news.”

“I believe innovation is the most powerful force for change in the world. People who are pessimistic about the future tend to extrapolate from the present in a straight line. But innovation fundamentally shifts the trajectory of development.”

“The key thing you can do to reduce population growth is actually improve health.”

“Microsoft does not dominate the software industry by any stretch of the imagination. We have lots of very able competitors who keep us constantly vigilant, and sometimes they beat us to the punch. Microsoft's success to date is based solely on the fact that people like Microsoft software.”

“At every juncture, advanced tools have been the key to a new wave of applications, and each wave of applications has been key to driving computing to the next level.”

“Ridiculous sums of money can be confusing.”

“Having kids has been a fantastic thing for me. It's meant that I'm a little more balanced. In my twenties I worked massively, hardly took vacation at all. Now, I, with the help of my wife, I'm always making sure I've got a good balance of how I spend my time.”

“The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity.”

“We'll have infinite bandwidth in a decade's time.”

“I'm not an educator ... I'm a learner.”

“Taxes are an investment in America.”

“The greatest thing you can do for your competition - hire poorly.”

“Microsoft has some assets like Office that have stayed strong and there's so much room for innovation in those.”

“When I was young I liked taking tests. I happened to be good at it. Certain subjects came easily, like math. All the science stuff. I would just read the textbooks in the first few days of class.”

“Philanthropy, although it's tiny compared to the government, it's 2% of the US economy, which is the largest percentage, other than the Middle East.”

“I'm not big on to-do lists. Instead, I use e-mail and desktop folders and my online calendar. So when I walk up to my desk, I can focus on the e-mails I've flagged and check the folders that are monitoring particular projects and particular blogs.”

“I think there will be PCs at every price point.”

“I am not topper in my university but all toppers are working in my microsoft company.”

“Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a "nervous system", to coordinate its actions.”

“Well the Global Fund, because of how well it's worked on not only AIDS, but also malaria and tuberculosis, I'd say it's well accepted. I mean, it's not politically controversial that this is a great humanitarian effort. But budgets are very very tight.”