In the decade ahead I can predict that we will provide over twice the productivity improvement that we provided in the '90s.

Success is a lousy teacher. It makes you think you know what you're doing.

Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize in positive ways to help society.

As I see it, there are two great forces of human nature: self-interest, and caring for others. Capitalism harnesses self-interest in a helpful and sustainable way, but only on behalf of those who can pay. Government aid and philanthropy channel our caring for those who can't pay. But to provide rapid improvement for the poor we need a system that draws in innovators and businesses in a far better way than we do today.

As we have taken diarrhea and pneumonia down, even malaria down quite a bit, the portion of the days that are very early in that 5 years - the first month, the first day - it's about half now. Yet that's the part we understand the least.

Two out of every five people on Earth today owe their lives to the higher crop outputs that fertilizer has made possible.

Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.