I have a company that is not Microsoft, called Corbis. Corbis is the operation that merged with Bettman Archives. It has nothing to do with Microsoft. It was intentionally done outside of Microsoft because Microsoft isn’t interested. -Bill Gates
In American math classes, we teach a lot of concepts poorly over many years. In the Asian systems, they teach you very few concepts very well over a few years. -Bill Gates
Almost every way we make electricity today, except for the emerging renewables and nuclear, puts out CO2. And so, what we’re going to have to do at a global scale, is create a new system. And so, we need energy miracles. -Bill Gates
I have an excellent memory, a most excellent memory. -Bill Gates
A first-generation fortune is the most likely to be given away, but once a fortune is inherited it’s less likely that a very high percentage will go back to society. -Bill Gates
Energy innovation is not a nationalistic game. -Bill Gates
Eradications are special. Zero is a magic number. You either do what it takes to get to zero and you’re glad you did it; or you get close, give up and it goes back to where it was before, in which case you wasted all that credibility, activity, money that could have been applied to other things. -Bill Gates
The world has been very careful to pick very few diseases for eradication because it is very tough. -Bill Gates
I think any statement about stock prices is always suspect unless it’s made by Warren Buffett. -Bill Gates
The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow. -Bill Gates
The only thing I understand deeply, because in my teens I was thinking about it, and every year of my life, is software. So I’ll never be hands-on on anything except software. -Bill Gates
It’s hard to improve public education – that’s clear. -Bill Gates
People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines… There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters. -Bill Gates
Well, no one gives aid to Zimbabwe through the Mugabe government. -Bill Gates
Until we’re educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do. -Bill Gates
We are in the throes of a transition where every publication has to think of their digital strategy. -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
The general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important. -Bill Gates
I remember thinking quite logically that I didn’t want to spoil my children with wealth and so that I would create a foundation, but not knowing exactly what it would focus on. -Bill Gates
Maintaining a consistent platform also helps improve product support – a significant problem in the software industry. -Bill Gates
Internet TV and the move to the digital approach is quite revolutionary. TV has historically has been a broadcast medium with everybody picking from a very finite number of channels. -Bill Gates
I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I’m still fanatical, but now I’m a little less fanatical. -Bill Gates
Digital reading will completely take over. It’s lightweight and it’s fantastic for sharing. Over time it will take over. -Bill Gates
Over time, yes, countries will need to look at specific GMO products like they look at drugs today, where they don’t approve of them all. They look hard at the safety and the testing. And they make sure that the benefits far outweigh any of the downsides. -Bill Gates
The most amazing philanthropists are people who are actually making a significant sacrifice. -Bill Gates
It’s possible – you can never know – that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s sure going well for me, I must admit. -Bill Gates
I don’t think there’s anything unique about human intelligence. -Bill Gates
It is hard to overstate how valuable it is to have all the incredible tools that are used for human disease to study plants. -Bill Gates
The moral systems of religion, I think, are super important. -Bill Gates
I understand how every healthy child, every new road, puts a country on a better path, but instability and war will arise from time to time, and I’m not an expert on how you get out of those things. -Bill Gates
Newspaper readership is still growing in India. -Bill Gates
There is a difference between what technology enables and what historical business practices enable. -Bill Gates
In ninth grade, I came up with a new form of rebellion. I hadn’t been getting good grades, but I decided to get all A’s without taking a book home. I didn’t go to math class, because I knew enough and had read ahead, and I placed within the top 10 people in the nation on an aptitude exam. -Bill Gates
I don’t think there’s a… boundary between digital media and print media. Every magazine is doing an online version. -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
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
Of my mental cycles, I devote maybe ten percent to business thinking. Business isn’t that complicated. I wouldn’t want to put it on my business card. -Bill Gates
Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied. -Bill Gates
The potential financial reward for building the ‘next Windows’ is so great that there will never be a shortage of new technologies seeking to challenge it. -Bill Gates
I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief. -Bill Gates
U.K. companies are in very international and very competitive markets. If you look at PC penetration in the U.K., it is very similar to the United States market. -Bill Gates
People should just buy a CD and rip it. You are legal then. -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
OK, I have a nickname. My family calls me ‘Trey’ because I’m William the third. My dad has the same name, which is always confusing because my dad is well known, and I’m also known. -Bill Gates
Legacy is a stupid thing! I don’t want a legacy. -Bill Gates
The future of advertising is the Internet. -Bill Gates
I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know. -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
The most impactful dollars that Australia can spend are actually what goes to help the poorest. -Bill Gates
Historically, privacy was almost implicit, because it was hard to find and gather information. But in the digital world, whether it’s digital cameras or satellites or just what you click on, we need to have more explicit rules – not just for governments but for private companies. -Bill Gates
Skype actually does get a fair bit of revenue. -Bill Gates
Headlines, in a way, are what mislead you because bad news is a headline, and gradual improvement is not. -Bill Gates
There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil. -Bill Gates
Most poor people live in the poorest countries. -Bill Gates
The world at large is less inequitable today than at any time in history. The number of people in abject poverty, as a percentage, is at an all-time low. -Bill Gates
Bitcoin is mostly about anonymous transactions, and I don’t think over time that’s a good way to go. I’m a huge believer in digital currency… but doing it on an anonymous basis I think that leads to some abuses, so I’m not involved in Bitcoin. –Bill Gates
Connectivity enables transparency for better government, education, and health. -Bill Gates
I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand the disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm – not all – that religion used to fill. -Bill Gates
India has over 20 percent of the kids born in the world. And they move around a lot. -Bill Gates
There certainly is a case to be made that taxes should be more progressive. -Bill Gates
Windows 8 is key to the future, the Surface computer. -Bill Gates
Personally, I’d like to see more of our leaders take a technocratic approach to solving our biggest problems. -Bill Gates
The belief that the world is getting worse, that we can’t solve extreme poverty and disease, isn’t just mistaken. It is harmful. -Bill Gates
Philanthropy should be voluntary. -Bill Gates
If I hadn’t given my money away, I’d have had more than anyone else on the planet. -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
I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improve the human condition. -Bill Gates
It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’ -Bill Gates
Capitalism has shortfalls. It doesn’t necessarily take care of the poor, and it underfunds innovation, so we have to offset that. -Bill Gates
Well-spent aid money is saving lives for a few thousand dollars per life saved. -Bill Gates
It’s OK for China to invent cancer drugs that cure patients in the United States. We want them to catch up. But as the leader, we want to keep setting a very, very high standard. We don’t want them to catch up because we’re slowing down or, even worse, going into reverse. -Bill Gates
I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars; there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that. -Bill Gates
If people want capital gains taxed more like the highest rate on income, that’s a good discussion. Maybe that’s the way to help close the deficit. -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 the skill set. -Bill Gates
By improving health, empowering women, population growth comes down. -Bill Gates
China has many successful entrepreneurs and business people. I hope that more people of insight will put their talents to work to improve the lives of poor people in China and around the world and seek solutions for them. -Bill Gates
A lot of the things that will really improve the world, fortunately, aren’t dependent on Washington doing something different. -Bill Gates
We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well. -Bill Gates
Considering their impact, you might expect mosquitoes to get more attention than they do. Sharks kill fewer than a dozen people every year, and in the U.S. they get a week dedicated to them on TV every year. -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
Innovation is moving at a scarily fast pace. -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
By 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world. Almost all countries will be what we now call lower-middle income or richer. -Bill Gates
Exposure from a young age to the realities of the world is a super-big thing. -Bill Gates
Whether I’m at the office, at home, or on the road, I always have a stack of books I’m looking forward to reading. -Bill Gates
Music, even with these dial-up connections you have to the Internet, is very practical to download. -Bill Gates
I believe the returns on investment in the poor are just as exciting as successes achieved in the business arena, and they are even more meaningful! -Bill Gates
I’m an investor in a number of biotech companies, partly because of my incredible enthusiasm for the great innovations they will bring. -Bill Gates
I like the idea of putting your Christmas wish list up and letting people share it. -Bill Gates
Some people, through luck and skill, end up with a lot of assets. If you’re good at kicking a ball, writing software, investing in stocks, it pays extremely well. -Bill Gates
Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them. -Bill Gates
No one person controls Microsoft. The board and the shareholders decide whether they want to have me as CEO. -Bill Gates
The idea that you encourage companies to take their innovative thinkers and think about the most needy – even beyond the market opportunities – that’s something that appropriately ought to be done. -Bill Gates
Eventually, all companies are replaced. -Bill Gates
One of the statistics that always amazes me is the approval of the Chinese government, not elected, is over 80 percent. The approval of the U.S. government, fully elected, is 19 percent. Well, we elected these people and they didn’t elect those people. Isn’t it supposed to be different? Aren’t we supposed to like the people that we elected? -Bill Gates
Ninety percent of the cases of polio are in security-vulnerable areas. -Bill Gates
Investing for the poor requires participation from the entire community. -Bill Gates
Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up. -Bill Gates
I’ve always been interested in science – one of my favorite books is James Watson’s ‘Molecular Biology of the Gene.’ -Bill Gates
I don’t generally read a lot of fiction. -Bill Gates
The only definition by which America’s best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis. -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
Whenever you have multiple devices including multiple PCs that you want to share information with, it’s always been a bit complicated. -Bill Gates
There are GMO skeptics more in Europe maybe than in other places, but not exclusively. -Bill Gates
In 80% of the world, energy will be bought where it is economic. You have to help the rest of the world get energy at a reasonable price. -Bill Gates
The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking. -Bill Gates
Common Core is a big win for education. -Bill Gates
Certainly, there’s a phenomenon around open source. You know free software will be a vibrant area. There will be a lot of neat things that get done there. -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 to people who would never have been heard. -Bill Gates
I don’t like typing messages on my phone. Some people get used to it. -Bill Gates
Our teachers deserve better feedback. -Bill Gates
