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

Interpretation

What this quote means

Expectations shape our perceptions of reality, making them powerful influences on our understanding of truth.

Bill Gates suggests that expectations hold a significant weight in our reality; if individuals or society at large believe something to be true, it becomes a truth in their minds, influencing behavior and decisions. This highlights the subjective nature of truth and how collective beliefs can shape our understanding of the world.

Themes

ExpectationsTruthPerceptionBeliefReality

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a business presentation to emphasize the importance of setting positive expectations for team performance.

More from Bill Gates

Nuclear energy, in terms of an overall safety record, is better than other energy.
Bill GatesRead
The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
Bill GatesRead
With the states release today of a set of clear and consistent academic standards, our nation is one step closer to supporting effective teaching in every classroom, charting a path to college and careers for all students, and developing the tools to help all children stay motivated and engaged in their own education. The more states that adopt these college and career based standards, the closer we will be to sharing innovation across state borders and becoming more competitive as a country.
Bill GatesRead
About three million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.
Bill GatesRead
Internet TV and the move to the digital approach is quite revolutionary. TV has historically has been a broadcast medium with everybody picking from a very finite number of channels.
Bill GatesRead
These four policy prescriptions - strengthening educational opportunities, revamping immigration rules for highly skilled workers, increasing federal funding for basic scientific research, and providing incentives for private-sector R&D - should in my view be top priorities as Congress and the Administration consider how to maintain the nation's leadership in science, technology, and innovation.
Bill GatesRead

Similar quotes

What they could do with 'round here is a good war. What else can you expect with peace running wild all over the place? You know what the trouble with peace is? No organization.
Bertolt BrechtRead
The body is a boat that carries the soul in the ocean of the world. If it is not strong, or it has a hole, then it cannot cross the ocean, so the first duty is to fix the boat.
Baba Hari DassRead
I have not seen much dignity in the process by which we die. The quest to achieve true dignity fails when our bodies fail.
Sherwin B. NulandRead
Part of the function of memory is to forget; the omni-retentive mind will break down and produce at best an idiot savant who can recite a telephone book, and at worst a person to whom every grudge and slight is as yesterday's.
Christopher HitchensRead
The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.
Earl WarrenRead
Hold everything earthly with a loose hand, but grasp eternal things with a death-like grip
Charles SpurgeonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.