| 71 Bill Gates Quotes and Sayings | Score |
|---|---|
| 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 | 79 |
| Life is not fair¸ get used to it | 79 |
| I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act | 77 |
| Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose | 76 |
| The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself | 76 |
| 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 | 76 |
| Don't compare yourself with anyone in this world¸ if you do so¸ you are insulting yourself | 75 |
| It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure | 75 |
| Often you have to rely on intuition | 75 |
| Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them¸ the teacher is the most important | 75 |
| As we look ahead into the next century¸ leaders will be those who empower others | 74 |
| If you mess up¸ it's not your parents fault¸ so don't whine about your mistakes¸ learn from them | 74 |
| 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 | 74 |
| You will not make $60¸000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both | 74 |
| Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one | 73 |
| 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 | 73 |
| In this business¸ by the time you realize you're in trouble¸ it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time¸ you're gone | 73 |
| Smart is an elusive concept. There's a certain sharpness¸ an ability to absorb new facts. To ask an insightful question. To relate to domains that may not seem connected at first. A certain creativity that allows people to be effective | 73 |
| 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 | 73 |
| We're only at the beginning of what we have to do here | 73 |
| Your school may have done away with winners and losers¸ but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades¸ they'll give you as many chances as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything | 73 |
| Every day we're saying¸ "How can we keep this customer happy?" How can we get ahead in innovation by doing this¸ because if we don't¸ somebody else will | 72 |
| 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 | 72 |
| If I'd had some set idea of a finish line¸ don't you think I would have crossed it years ago? | 72 |
| If you think your teacher is tough¸ wait till you get a boss | 72 |
| 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 | 72 |
| 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 | 71 |
| If you can't make it good¸ at least make it look good | 71 |
| Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning | 71 |
| We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction | 71 |
| Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning | 71 |
| Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping¸ they called it opportunity | 70 |
| I realized about 10 years ago that my wealth has to go back to society. A fortune¸ the size of which is hard to imagine¸ is best not passed on to one's children. It's not constructive for them | 70 |
| Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana | 70 |
| 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 | 70 |
| 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 | 70 |
| I look forward¸ I'm very optimistic about the things I see ahead | 69 |
| If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has¸ we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG | 69 |
| 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 | 69 |
| We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be | 69 |
| I studied every thing but never topped¸ But today the toppers of the best universities are my employees | 68 |
| 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 | 68 |
| Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summer off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time | 68 |
| Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs | 68 |
| The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow | 68 |
| I like my job because it involves learning. I like being around smart people who are trying to figure out new things. I like the fact that if people really try they can figure out how to invent things that actually have an impact | 67 |
| 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 | 67 |
| Whether it's Google or Apple or free software¸ we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes | 67 |
| At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top¸ I'm afraid that's not quite right | 66 |
| Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved | 66 |
| Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness | 66 |
| People everywhere love Windows | 66 |
| When you want to do your homework¸ fill out your tax return¸ or see all the choices for a trip you want to take¸ you need a full-size screen | 66 |
| 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 | 65 |
| 640K ought to be enough for anybody | 64 |
| Love him or hate him¸ he sure hits the nail on the head with this! | 64 |
| We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior | 64 |
| 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 | 63 |
| When the PC was launched¸ people knew it was important | 63 |
| 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 | 62 |
| 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 | 62 |
| 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 | 61 |
| Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other | 61 |
| If you're asking whether I intentionally mess up my hair¸ no¸ I don't. And certain things¸ like my freckles¸ they're just there. I don't do anything consciously. I suppose I could get contact lenses. I suppose I could comb my hair more often | 59 |
| DOS is ugly and interferes with users experience | 57 |
| I'm cooler than you. Waay cooler | 57 |
| 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 | 56 |
| You see¸ antiquated ideas of kindness and generosity are simply bugs that must be programmed out of our world. And these cold¸ unfeeling machines will show us the way | 56 |
| Windows 2000 already contains features such as the human discipline component¸ where the PC can send an electric shock through the keyboard if the human does something that does not please Windows | 54 |
| Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo | 53 |
| 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 | 51 |









