Quotes from Bill Gates

Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.

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.

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

Microsoft looks at new ideas, they don't evaluate whether the idea will move the industry forward, they ask, 'how will it help us sell more copies of Windows?

I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

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.

If you give people tools, and they use their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.

I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand 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.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don't know if there's a god or not...

DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.

Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.

Computers are great because when you're working with them you get immediate results that let you know if your program works. It's feedback you don't get from many other things.

Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.

The vision is really about empowering workers giving them all the information about what's going on so they can do a lot more than they've done in the past.

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

Power comes not from knowledge kept but from knowledge shared.

Well, Steve [Jobs]… I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbour named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show Them The Solutions They Will Be Moved To Act

So it's an absolute lie that has killed thousands of kids. Because the mothers who heard that lie, many of them didn't have their kids take either pertussis or measles vaccine, and their children are dead today. And so the people who go and engage in those anti-vaccine efforts -- you know, they, they kill children. It's a very sad thing, because these vaccines are important.

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