The main thing that's missing in energy is an incentive to create things that are zero-CO2-emitting and that have the right scale and reliability characteristics.
Bill GatesWhen I was trying to figure out why lives have improved so much in the last 300 years, where we've gone from a third of kids dying before 5 to - by 1990 it was down to 10% - now it's down to 5%. And saying why, over all history, there were smart people, but that number didn't change. Average life span didn't change. What's magical about what's been deemed the Industrial Revolution? It's really energy intensity.
Bill GatesSuccess today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.
Bill GatesKids are taking PCs and the Internet to new heights. They're the ones that are designing the cutting-edge web sites.
Bill GatesMeasuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.
Bill GatesThis [philanthropy] work is even more fascinating. It requires us to think harder about how we build partnerships, who we get behind. And yet we get to see progress that in some ways is even more profound than the great advances that digital technology has provided.
Bill GatesWhen you lose a customer, it can be tempting to tell each other, "That customer's not very sharp. They just made the wrong decision".
Bill GatesYou 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.
Bill GatesThe next big invention that will change the way we live should be things like ways of generating energy like electricity.
Bill GatesWith a public library card in your hand, you have access to the Internet and a world of opportunities.
Bill GatesShould surveillance be usable for petty crimes like jaywalking or minor drug possession? Or is there a higher threshold for certain information? Those aren't easy questions.
Bill GatesLike many others, I have deep misgivings about the state of education in the United States. Too many of our students fail to graduate from high school with the basic skills they will need to succeed in the 21st Century economy, much less prepared for the rigors of college and career. Although our top universities continue to rank among the best in the world, too few American students are pursuing degrees in science and technology. Compounding this problem is our failure to provide sufficient training for those already in the workforce.
Bill GatesIn programming when you're making a change you have to know all the affected places, and you have to be able to model in your head what the performance impact will be.
Bill GatesIn my parents I saw a model where they were really always communicating, doing things together. They were really kind of a team. I wanted some of that magic myself.
Bill GatesThe close relationships we form between researchers and product groups have already shown we can move the great ideas as they come along, without a schedule, into the products.
Bill GatesPhilanthropy, 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.
Bill GatesSee the clock only when you have No work.... Don't see the clock when you are working.... Clock is a lock for success
Bill GatesThe information society should serve all of its citizens, not only the technically sophisticated and economically privileged.
Bill GatesThere are ecosystems like coral reefs [at risk] through ocean acidification. Those are valuable things that we should protect.
Bill GatesI have drifted away from thinking about these philanthropic things. And it was only as the wealth got large enough and Melinda and I had talked about the view that wealth wasn't something that would be good to just pass to the children.
Bill GatesLectures should go from being like the family singing around the piano to high-quality concerts.
Bill GatesI have to say that in 1981, making those decisions, I felt like I was providing enough freedom for 10 years. That is, a move from 64k to 640k felt like something that would last a great deal of time. Well, it didn't - it took about only 6 years before people started to see that as a real problem.
Bill GatesI think there's even a chance that [R&D and innovation budgets] might be increased [during Donald Trump Administration] and we should go and make that case to the executive branch, to the Congress.
Bill GatesThe general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important. That your sense of justice says, why should rich kids - who barely get these diseases and almost never die of them - why should they get the vaccines, when poor kids, who actually do die from these diseases, don't get those things? It's an unbelievable inequity that there isn't that access.
Bill GatesWhen I was in college, for the games of that era, I was as hard core as anyone was. I wouldn't say I outgrew it, but you always have to have a finite number of addictions.
Bill GatesIf there was an epidemic, that definitely would make people accept vaccines. I wouldn't hope for that, of course, but if you wanted people to love vaccines, an epidemic would remind them how magical they are.
Bill GatesIf you're taking care of your family and society and are comfortable you can start to think about helping those most in need globally. That's how we became engaged in those things.
Bill GatesI would certainly use my voice to try and avoid anything that undermines confidence, so that parents are using vaccines fully.
Bill GatesFortunately for India, it has got a growing economy. If it is doing the right things with taxation and focusing on the right areas for human development, it is going to have no problem, over a period of time, taking care of its own needs.
Bill GatesWhen I say "miracle" I mean a kind of thing like a computer on a chip, or the internet, or the cellphone, that are really quite miraculous. Most people would not have predicted them, and their effect has been very, very dramatic.
Bill Gates