Bill Gates

I can understand wanting to have a million dollars but once you get beyond that, I have to tell you, it's the same hamburger.

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.

If I only had two dollars left I would spend one dollar on PR.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

(Talking about his first computer) Like all kids we not only fooled around with our toys, we changed them. If you've ever watched a child with a cardboard carton and a box of crayons create a spaceship with cool control panels, or listened to their improvised rules, such as "Red cars can jump all others," then you know that this impulse to make a toy do more is at the heart of innovative childhood play. It is also the essence of creativity.

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

We all know that there are these exemplars who can take the toughest students, and they'll teach them two-and-a-half years of math in a single year.

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.

The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

I'm certainly well taken care of in terms of food and clothes ... Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point. Its utility is entirely in building an organization and getting the resources out to the poorest in the world.

Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.

Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a "nervous system", to coordinate its actions.

Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity.

The people who resist change will be confronted by the growing number of people who see that better ways are available; thanks to technology.

Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied.

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

Hey, size works against excellence.

The world needs banking but it does not need banks.

Only through focus can you do world-class things, no matter how capable you are.

I hope corporations will dedicate a percentage of their top innovators' time to issues that could help people left out of the global economy. This kind of contribution is even more powerful than giving cash or offering employees' time off to volunteer. It is a focused use of what your company does best. It is a great form of creative capitalism, because it takes the brainpower and makes life better for the richest, and dedicates some of it to improving the lives of everyone else.

You need to understand things in order to invent beyond them.