Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

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.

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.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.

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.

The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking.

Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

It's hard to improve public education - that's clear.

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.

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.

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.

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.

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.

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

There are more people dying of malaria than any specific cancer.

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.

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.

When I was growing up, my parents were almost involved in various volunteer things. My dad was head of Planned Parenthood. And it was very controversial to be involved with that.

Legacy is a stupid thing! I don't want a legacy.

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.

I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts.

Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering.

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.

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.

Treatment without prevention is simply unsustainable.

Nuclear energy, in terms of an overall safety record, is better than other energy.

Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness.

By improving health, empowering women, population growth comes down.

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

The way to be successful in the software world is to come up with breakthrough software, and so whether it's Microsoft Office or Windows, its pushing that forward. New ideas, surprising the marketplace, so good engineering and good business are one in the same.

Capitalism has worked very well. Anyone who wants to move to North Korea is welcome.

I don't think there's anything unique about human intelligence.

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity - the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires.

I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I'm still fanatical, but now I'm a little less fanatical.

In business, the idea of measuring what you are doing, picking the measurements that count like customer satisfaction and performance... you thrive on that.

We make the future sustainable when we invest in the poor, not when we insist on their suffering.

The PC has improved the world in just about every area you can think of. Amazing developments in communications, collaboration and efficiencies. New kinds of entertainment and social media. Access to information and the ability to give a voice people who would never have been heard.

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.

The future of advertising is the Internet.

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 MPG.

Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point.

Exposure from a young age to the realities of the world is a super-big thing.

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.

Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings.

If your culture doesn't like geeks, you are in real trouble.

Headlines, in a way, are what mislead you because bad news is a headline, and gradual improvement is not.

The most amazing philanthropists are people who are actually making a significant sacrifice.

In ninth grade, I came up with a new form of rebellion. I hadn't been getting good grades, but I decided to get all A's without taking a book home. I didn't go to math class, because I knew enough and had read ahead, and I placed within the top 10 people in the nation on an aptitude exam.

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.

I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know.

The moral systems of religion, I think, are super important.

Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it's true.

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.

I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm - not all - that religion used to fill.