With tech companies, whoever's the leader is always questioned, you know. They say, 'Is this the end of them?' And - there's more - more times people think that's the case than it really is the case.

In energy, you have to plan and do research way in advance, sometimes decades in advance to get a new system that's safer, doesn't require us to go around the world to get all our oil.

On my desk I have three screens, synchronized to form a single desktop. I can drag items from one screen to the next. Once you have that large display area, you'll never go back, because it has a direct impact on productivity.

In the old generation, if one kid bought a PlayStation 2 and the other kid bought an Xbox, at his house you played PlayStation, at your house you played Xbox. Now that it's online, all those early buyers who... you want to play with, they've got their reputation online of who they are and how good they are at these games.

If you're a person struggling to eat and stay healthy, you might have heard about Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali, but you'll never have heard of Bill Gates

If you're low-income in the United States, you have a higher chance of going to jail than you do of getting a four-year degree. And that doesn't seem entirely fair.

Microsoft Research has a thing called the Sense Cam that, as you walk around, it's taking photos all the time. And the software will filter and find the ones that are interesting without having to think, 'Let's get out the camera and get that shot.' You just have that, and software helps you pick what you want.

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

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

If you are born poor its not your mistake, But if you die poor its your mistake.

If you think your teacher is tough, wait ’til you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good

It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars, there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that. ‘But once you get much beyond that, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger.

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

“I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think that a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot

“People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they.”

“Find yourself.”

“To win big, you sometimes need to take big risks.” 

“Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering.”

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

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

I was lucky to be involved and get to contribute to something that was important, which is empowering people with software.

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

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

The general idea of the rich helping the poor, I think, is important

I’m a geek

I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

Don’t make the same decision twice. Spend time and thought to make a solid decision the first time so that you don’t revisit the issue unnecessarily

Reward worthy failure–experimentation

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

Life is not fair; get used to it.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Now, we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons. For each American, it's about 20 tons. For people in poor countries, it's less than one ton. It's an average of about five tons for everyone on the planet. And, somehow, we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.

Eradications are special. Zero is a magic number. You either do what it takes to get to zero and you're glad you did it; or you get close, give up and it goes back to where it was before, in which case you wasted all that credibility, activity, money that could have been applied to other things.