Bill Gates quotes

“Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself.”

— 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

“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

“Governments will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They set public policy and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make sure solutions reach everyone who needs them. They also fund basic research, which is a crucial component of the innovation that improves life for everyone.”

— Bill Gates

“Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.”

— Bill Gates

“Now, we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons. For each American, it's about 20 tons. For people in poor countries, it's less than one ton. It's an average of about five tons for everyone on the planet. And, somehow, we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.”

— Bill Gates

“DOS is ugly and interferes with users' experience.”

— 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

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

— Bill Gates

“I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great software.”

— Bill Gates

“I spend a lot of time reading.”

— Bill Gates

“Capitalism has worked very well. Anyone who wants to move to North Korea is welcome.”

— Bill Gates

“I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts.”

— Bill Gates

“We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.”

— 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

“I have an excellent memory, a most excellent memory.”

— 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

“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

“There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's no-one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft.”

— Bill Gates

“We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.”

— Bill Gates

“The general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important.”

— Bill Gates

“People everywhere love Windows.”

— Bill Gates

“Rich countries can afford to overpay for things.”

— Bill Gates

“Well the protester I think is a very powerful thing. It's basically a mechanism of democracy that, along with capitalism, scientific innovation, those things have built the modern world. And it's wonderful that the new tools have empowered that protestor so that state secrets, bad developments are not hidden anymore.”

— Bill Gates

“Certainly I'll never be able to put myself in the situation that people growing up in the less developed countries are in. I've gotten a bit of a sense of it by being out there and meeting people and talking with them.”

— Bill Gates

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

— Bill Gates

“I read a lot of obscure books and it is nice to open a book.”

— 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

“It's really kind of cool to have solar panels on your roof.”

— Bill Gates

“Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness.”

— Bill Gates