Bill Gates

“Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.”

“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 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.”

“Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.”

“In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”

“If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.”

“I spend a lot of time reading.”

“I think the thing we see is that as people are using video games more, they tend to watch passive TV a bit less. And so using the PC for the Internet, playing video games, is starting to cut into the rather unbelievable amount of time people spend watching TV.”

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve.”

“If you give people tools, and they use their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.”

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

“Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.”

“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.”

“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.”

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

“Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers - organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative - if we don't solve these security problems, then people will hold back.”

“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.”

“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

“Innovations that are guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food security in the future.”

“We should all grow our own food and do our own waste processing, we really should.”