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.

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

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.

640K ought to be enough for anybody.

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.

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG.

People everywhere love Windows.

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.

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

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.

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

Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.

The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.

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.

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

DOS is ugly and interferes with users' experience.

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

At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.

When you want to do your homework, fill out your tax return, or see all the choices for a trip you want to take, you need a full-size screen.

If I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I would have crossed it years ago?

Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.

Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself.

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 about five tons for everyone on the planet. And, somehow, we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.

Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

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

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.

The U.S. couldn't even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They'll be killing each other again in less than a year. I'm sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.

Almost every way we make electricity today, except for the emerging renewables and nuclear, puts out CO2. And so, what we're going to have to do at a global scale, is create a new system. And so, we need energy miracles.

Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness.

When the PC was launched, people knew it was important.

I actually thought that it would be a little confusing during the same period of your life to be in one meeting when you're trying to make money, and then go to another meeting where you're giving it away.

If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.

Life is not fair; get used to it.

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.

There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's no-one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft.

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.

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.

Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.

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.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

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 believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great software.

Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren't so exciting.

3D is a way of organizing things, particularly as we're getting much more media information on the computer, a lot more choices, a lot more navigation than we've ever had before.

A first-generation fortune is the most likely to be given away, but once a fortune is inherited it's less likely that a very high percentage will go back to society.