Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.
Bill Gates
It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
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.
If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.
Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.
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.
We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve.
The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
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.
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life.
Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.
If you go back to 1800, everybody was poor. I mean everybody. The Industrial Revolution kicked in, and a lot of countries benefited, but by no means everyone.
In the long run, your human capital is your main base of competition. Your leading indicator of where you're going to be 20 years from now is how well you're doing in your education system.
Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.
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.
You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There's another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity.
The worst pandemic in modern history was the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed tens of millions of people. Today, with how interconnected the world is, it would spread faster.
Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.
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.
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.
Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize, in positive ways to help society.
Treatment without prevention is simply unsustainable.
Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.
I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I'm still fanatical, but now I'm a little less fanatical.
Everyone needs a coach. It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.
Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering.
I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.
I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts.
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.
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.
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.
If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 MPG.
Capitalism has worked very well. Anyone who wants to move to North Korea is welcome.
Headlines, in a way, are what mislead you because bad news is a headline, and gradual improvement is not.
I think the thing we see is that as people are using video games more, they tend to watch passive TV a bit less. And so using the PC for the Internet, playing video games, is starting to cut into the rather unbelievable amount of time people spend watching TV.
Globalization has made copper and other minerals more valuable, and Ghana and Kenya have recently discovered mineral resources.
Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.
Bitcoin is mostly about anonymous transactions, and I don't think over time that's a good way to go. I'm a huge believe in digital currency... but doing it on an anonymous basis I think that leads to some abuses, so I'm not involved in Bitcoin.
Nuclear energy, in terms of an overall safety record, is better than other energy.
We make the future sustainable when we invest in the poor, not when we insist on their suffering.
Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings.
Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.
Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it's true.
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.
Digital technology has several features that can make it much easier for teachers to pay special attention to all their students.
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.
Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point.
We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.
