Quotes from Bill Gates

As I look forward, I'm very optimistic about the things I see ahead.

It is hard to smash a computer when you're laughing.

Everything on the internet is real god damn it!

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, but I think religious principles are quite valid.

When I walk into a grocery store and look at all the products you can choose, I say, "My God!" No king ever had anything like I have in my grocery store today.

Convert bad news to good news.

Strategically, a major function of the CEO is to look for bad news and encourage the organization to respond to it. Employees must be encouraged to share bad news as much as good news.

Given how few young people actually read the newspaper, it's a good thing they'll be reading a newspaper on a screen.

Measles will always show you if someone isn't doing a good job on vaccinations. Kids will start dying of measles.

[Africa] is the one continent where you still have a lot more young people than old people. So making sure they're healthy, good nutrition, good education. That'll be important for the world.

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

Antitrust is the way that the government promotes markets when there are market failures. It has nothing to do with the idea of free information.

I believe the government has the right to recover from the heirs to the fortunes of its most successful citizens some portion of those fortunes.

Well, no one gives aid to Zimbabwe through the Mugabe government.

Make sure people get educated, help out with health emergencies. Those things, the government should do. That's 96 per cent of the economy, those two sectors.

The U.S. immigration laws are bad - really, really bad. I'd say treatment of immigrants is one of the greatest injustices done in our government's name.

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

Netscape was able to get the government working on its behalf.

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.

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.

Don't let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.

People are always coming up to me and saying, 'I heard your dad's speech, and it's really great.' And they'll mention some place I didn't even know my dad was going to.

If you want to build a great company, get the hell out of Silicon Valley.

I have a nice office. I have a nice house... So I'm not denying myself some great things. I just don't happen to have expensive hobbies.