106 Quotes & Sayings By Bill Gates

Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. Bill Gates

I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot. Bill Gates

Life is not fair, get used to it Bill Gates

The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's heading up to about nine billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care & reproductive health services, we could LOWER that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent. Bill Gates

DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF WITH ANYONE IN THIS WORLD..........IF U DO SO U R INSULTING YOURSELF Bill Gates

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. Bill Gates

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates

Some people may call me a nerd. I claim the label with pride. Bill Gates

Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other. Bill Gates

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. Bill Gates

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana. Bill Gates

In business, the idea of measuring what you are doing, picking the measurements that count like customer satisfaction and performance... you thrive on that. Bill Gates

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity - the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires. Bill Gates

This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50. Bill Gates

The way to be successful in the software world is to come up with breakthrough software, and so whether it's Microsoft Office or Windows, its pushing that forward. New ideas, surprising the marketplace, so good engineering and good business are one in the same. Bill Gates

If all my bridge coach ever told me was that I was 'satisfactory, ' I would have no hope of ever getting better. How would I know who was the best? How would I know what I was doing differently? Bill Gates

When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have. Bill Gates

My experience of malaria was just taking anti-malarials, which give you strange dreams, because I don't want to get malaria. Bill Gates

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. Bill Gates

I went to a public school through sixth grade, and being good at tests wasn't cool. Bill Gates

I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user. Bill Gates

I'm a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they're interested in. Bill Gates

Eventually you won't think of 'the Internet business.' You'll think of it more like news, weather, sports, but even that taxonomy isn't clear. Bill Gates

Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers - organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative - if we don't solve these security problems, then people will hold back. Bill Gates

I like the idea of putting your Christmas wish list up and letting people share it. Bill Gates

I've always been interested in science - one of my favourite books is James Watson's 'Molecular Biology of the Gene.' Bill Gates

Research shows that there is only half as much variation in student achievement between schools as there is among classrooms in the same school. If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school. Bill Gates

The best teacher is very interactive. Bill Gates

The Gates Foundation has learned that two questions can predict how much kids learn: 'Does your teacher use class time well?' and, 'When you're confused, does your teacher help you get straightened out?' Bill Gates

The malaria parasite has been killing children and sapping the strength of whole populations for tens of thousands of years. It is impossible to calculate the harm malaria has done to the world. Bill Gates

The U.S. couldn't even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They'll be killing each other again in less than a year. I'm sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits. Bill Gates

Exposure from a young age to the realities of the world is a super-big thing. Bill Gates

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning. Bill Gates

Eventually we'll be able to sequence the human genome and replicate how nature did intelligence in a carbon-based system. Bill Gates

I don't think there's anything unique about human intelligence. Bill Gates

There's no such thing as going to a soapbox and saying, 'The government's corrupt, ' and not having the intelligence service see your face. In the digital world, that can be done. Bill Gates

The common thread for everything I do is this idea of a Web-services architecture. What does that mean? It means taking components of software and systems and having them be self-describing, so that you can aim them, ask them what their capabilities are, and communicate with them using a standard protocol. Bill Gates

We should all grow our own food and do our own waste processing, we really should. Bill Gates

Innovations that are guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food security in the future. Bill Gates

The moral systems of religion, I think, are super important. Bill Gates

What's amazing is, if young people understood how doing well in school makes the rest of their life so much interesting, they would be more motivated. It's so far away in time that they can't appreciate what it means for their whole life. Bill Gates

By improving health, empowering women, population growth comes down. Bill Gates

If you can't make it good, at least make it look good. Bill Gates

The worst pandemic in modern history was the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed tens of millions of people. Today, with how interconnected the world is, it would spread faster. Bill Gates

The PC has improved the world in just about every area you can think of. Amazing developments in communications, collaboration and efficiencies. New kinds of entertainment and social media. Access to information and the ability to give a voice people who would never have been heard. Bill Gates

This whole phenomenon of the computer in a library is an amazing thing. Bill Gates

The most amazing philanthropists are people who are actually making a significant sacrifice. Bill Gates

Steve Jobs' ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right, and market things as revolutionary are amazing things. Bill Gates

The nuclear industry has this amazing record, even equipment from generations one and two. But nuclear mishaps tend to come in these big events - Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and now Fukushima - so it's more visible. Bill Gates

If you're low-income in the United States, you have a higher chance of going to jail than you do of getting a four-year degree. And that doesn't seem entirely fair. Bill Gates

My son likes to go see mines and electric plants, or the Large Hadron Collider, and we've had a chance to see a lot of interesting stuff. Bill Gates

For a highly motivated learner, it's not like knowledge is secret and somehow the Internet made it not secret. It just made knowledge easy to find. If you're a motivated enough learner, books are pretty good. Bill Gates

Employers have decided that having the breadth of knowledge that's associated with a four-year degree is often something they want to see in the people they give that job to. Bill Gates

DOS is ugly and interferes with users' experience. Bill Gates

In order to deal with all the medical cost demands and other challenges in the U.S., as we look to raise that revenue, the rich will have to pay slightly more. That's quite clear. Bill Gates

Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it's true. Bill Gates

Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering. Bill Gates

In poor countries, we still need better ways to measure the effectiveness of the many government workers providing health services. They are the crucial link bringing tools such as vaccines and education to the people who need them most. How well trained are they? Are they showing up to work? Bill Gates

Connectivity enables transparency for better government, education, and health. Bill Gates

Contrary to popular belief, I don't spend a whole lot of time following soccer. But as I have traveled around the world to better understand global development and health, I've learned that soccer is truly universal. No matter where I go, that's what kids are playing. That's what people are talking about. Bill Gates

You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There's another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity. Bill Gates

Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize, in positive ways to help society. Bill Gates

Teaching's hard! You need different skills: positive reinforcement, keeping students from getting bored, commanding their attention in a certain way. Bill Gates

I think the positive competition between states in India is one of the most positive dynamics that the country has. Bill Gates

The thing about HD-DVD that is attractive to Microsoft is that it's very pro-consumer in letting you copy all movies up onto the hard disk. Bill Gates

If you have 50 different plug types, appliances wouldn't be available and would be very expensive. But once an electric outlet becomes standardized, many companies can design appliances, and competition ensues, creating variety and better prices for consumers. Bill Gates

The typical project design time for a large company like IBM - and they keep track of this - is a little over four years. Bill Gates

Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren't so exciting. Bill Gates

To create a new standard, it takes something that's not just a little bit different; it takes something that's really new and really captures people's imagination, and the Macintosh, of all the machines I've ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard. Bill Gates

The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking. Bill Gates

Money has always been in politics. And I'm not sure you'd want money to be completely out of politics. Bill Gates

The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life. Bill Gates

Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings. Bill Gates

Digital technology has several features that can make it much easier for teachers to pay special attention to all their students. Bill Gates

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1, 000 MPG. Bill Gates

Software substitution, whether it's for drivers or waiters or nurses - it's progressing. Technology over time will reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower end of skill set. Bill Gates

There is a difference between what technology enables and what historical business practices enable. Bill Gates

My mom and my dad were both very sociable, meeting lots of interesting people. Bill Gates

My mom was on the United Way group that decides how to allocate the money and looks at all the different charities and makes the very hard decisions about where that pool of funds is going to go. Bill Gates

I actually thought that it would be a little confusing during the same period of your life to be in one meeting when you're trying to make money, and then go to another meeting where you're giving it away. I mean is it gonna erode your ability, you know, to make money? Are you gonna somehow get confused about what you're trying to do? Bill Gates

We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior. Bill Gates

Well private money can take risks in a way that government money often isn't willing to. Bill Gates

In the long run, your human capital is your main base of competition. Your leading indicator of where you're going to be 20 years from now is how well you're doing in your education system. Bill Gates

Flying cars are not a very efficient way to move things from one point to another. Bill Gates

When Ford sells a car, a dealer isn't allowed to take out the engine and put a different one in. When a newsstand sells the Washington Post, no one can go to the newsstand and pay them to rip out the classified section and put their own classified section in - if they could, they would do so. Bill Gates

I have a particular relationship with Vinod Khosla because he's got a lot of very interesting science-based energy startups. Bill Gates

In inner-city, low-income communities of color, there's such a high correlation in terms of educational quality and success. Bill Gates

Well I think any author or musician is anxious to have legitimate sales of their products, partly so they're rewarded for their success, partly so they can go on and do new things. Bill Gates

Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority. Bill Gates

By the time we see that climate change is really bad, your ability to fix it is extremely limited... The carbon gets up there, but the heating effect is delayed. And then the effect of that heat on the species and ecosystem is delayed. That means that even when you turn virtuous, things are actually going to get worse for quite a while. Bill Gates

Although I don't have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way. Bill Gates

People should just buy a CD and rip it. You are legal then. Bill Gates