Melinda Gates

When we invest in women and girls, we are investing in the people who invest in everyone else.

I care much more about saving the lives of mothers and babies than I do about a fancy museum somewhere.

All lives have an equal value.

We look in our own backyard and say, 'How do we help at-risk families, at risk youth? How do we think through some of the problems affecting the Pacific Northwest and make some change there?'

I think it's very important that we instill in our kids that it has nothing to do with their name or their situation that they're growing up in; it has to do with who they are as an individual.

One life is worth no more or less than any other

Women and girls should be able to determine their own future, no matter where they're born.

Philanthropy is not about the money. It's about using whatever resources you have at your fingertips and applying them to improving the world.

The fact that 98 percent of women in [the U.S.] who are sexually experienced say they use birth control doesn't make sex any less sacred. It just means that they're getting to make choices about their lives.

We started our foundation because we believe we have a real opportunity to help advance equity around the world, to help make sure that, no matter where a person is born, he or she has the chance to live a healthy, productive life.

If we don't empower women, we don't allow them to unlock the potential of themselves and their children.

If you invest in a girl or a woman, you are investing in everybody else.

You can have the best vaccines for a woman or her child, but if you can't get her to come and get them then they won't work.

There's a false perception that women in Africa somehow don't love their babies they way we do, don't grieve their loss the way we would. That is simply not true.

Kids are falling through the cracks and nobody notices it. That to me is what's wrong with the school system.

If you want to lift up an economy in Africa, you basically start with the women.

When girls are educated and free to pursue their passions, they contribute more to a thriving society. When women have a voice, they raise it to demand a life that is greater than what they've been told they have a right to expect. And these demands change the future for everyone.

All women, everywhere, have the same hopes: we want to be self-sufficient and create better lives for ourselves and our loved ones.

It is still just unbelievable to us that diarrhea is one of the leading causes of child deaths in the world.

Everyone agrees that the failure of our high schools is tragic. It's bad business, and it's bad policy. But we act as if it can't be helped. It can be helped. We designed these high schools; we can redesign them.

The premise of this foundation is one life on this planet is no more valuable than the next.