Bill Gates

There's no magic line between an application and an operating system that some bureaucrat in Washington should draw.

Although I don't have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way.

The trouble with energy farming is that the energy isn't always where you want to use it, and it isn't always when you want to use it.

I know there's a farmer out there somewhere who never wants a PC and that's fine with me.

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.

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.

We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.

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

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

Almost every way we make electricity today, except for the emerging renewables and nuclear, puts out CO2. And so, what we're going to have to do at a global scale, is create a new system. And so, we need energy miracles.

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

Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.

This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don't know if there's a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid.

To create a new standard it takes something that's not just a little bit different. It takes something that's really new and really captures people's imagination. And the Macintosh, of all the machines I've ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.