Bill Gates

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

“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....”

“The only definition by which America's best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis.”

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

“There's 20 companies that I have investments in - some batteries, some solar-thermal, one big nuclear thing. We need hundreds and hundreds of companies like that, so that in a 20-year time f...”

“The difference between a stranger sending you a message that you might be interested in at a very low volume level, no repetition, just sending it to very few people, and that being done as...”

“I think that society has to be careful not to shift all of its resources to the elderly versus the young.”

“I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false exp...”

“Netscape was able to get the government working on its behalf.”

“We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.”

“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'...”

“In poor countries, we still need better ways to measure the effectiveness of the many government workers providing health services. They are the crucial link bringing tools such as vaccines...”

“The kids are a big part of my schedule.”

“Paper is no longer a big part of my day. I get 90% of my news online, and when I go to a meeting and want to jot things down, I bring my Tablet PC. It's fully synchronized with my office mac...”

“Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.”

“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 abou...”

“The 'Billionaire' song is what my kids tease me with. They sing it to me. It's funny.”

“I've always been interested in science - one of my favourite books is James Watson's 'Molecular Biology of the Gene.'”

“I'm an investor in a number of biotech companies, partly because of my incredible enthusiasm for the great innovations they will bring.”

“In K-12, almost everybody goes to local schools. Universities are a bit different because kids actually do pick the university. The bizarre thing, though, is that the merit of university is...”