Although I don't have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way.

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.

There are websites that any government wants to block. The truth about the Internet is that it's extremely hard to block anything - extremely hard. You'll never get perfect blocking.

One of the statistics that always amazes me is the approval of the Chinese government, not elected, is over 80 percent. The approval of the U.S. government, fully elected, is 19 percent. Well, we elected these people and they didn't elect those people. Isn't it supposed to be different? Aren't we supposed to like the people that we elected?

Well private money can take risks in a way that government money often isn't willing to.

Well, no one gives aid to Zimbabwe through the Mugabe government.

You have to have a certain realism that government is a pretty blunt instrument, and without the constant attention of highly qualified people with the right metrics, it will fall into not doing things very well.

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

The fight against AIDS in China is already well underway. The Chinese government and other funders are providing major support, and they'll continue to bear primary responsibility for delivering prevention and treatment.

Antitrust is the way that the government promotes markets when there are market failures. It has nothing to do with the idea of free information.

There's no such thing as going to a soapbox and saying, 'The government's corrupt,' and not having the intelligence service see your face. In the digital world, that can be done.

By improving health, empowering women, population growth comes down.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't spend a whole lot of time following soccer. But as I have traveled around the world to better understand global development and health, I've learned that soccer is truly universal. No matter where I go, that's what kids are playing. That's what people are talking about.

In low-income countries, getting to a health post is hard. It's very expensive.

The spread of online information isn't just good for charities. It's also good for donors. You can go to a site like Charity Navigator, which evaluates nonprofits on their financial health as well as the amount of information they share about their work.

Nigeria has moved into low-middle-income, but their north is very poor, and the health care systems there have broken down.

The malaria parasite has been killing children and sapping the strength of whole populations for tens of thousands of years. It is impossible to calculate the harm malaria has done to the world.

The worst pandemic in modern history was the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed tens of millions of people. Today, with how interconnected the world is, it would spread faster.

The world at large is less inequitable today than at any time in history. Number of people in abject poverty, as a percentage, is at all-time low.

The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life.

Technology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings.

Digital technology has several features that can make it much easier for teachers to pay special attention to all their students.

The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking.

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

There is a difference between what technology enables and what historical business practices enable.

Software substitution, whether it's for drivers or waiters or nurses - it's progressing. Technology over time will reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower end of skill set.

I don't think there's anything unique about human intelligence.

Eventually we'll be able to sequence the human genome and replicate how nature did intelligence in a carbon-based system.

Employers have decided that having the breadth of knowledge that's associated with a four-year degree is often something they want to see in the people they give that job to.

For a highly motivated learner, it's not like knowledge is secret and somehow the Internet made it not secret. It just made knowledge easy to find. If you're a motivated enough learner, books are pretty good.

People should just buy a CD and rip it. You are legal then.

Well-spent aid money is saving lives for a few thousand dollars per life saved.

Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point.

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

My mom and my dad were both very sociable, meeting lots of interesting people.

My mom was on the United Way group that decides how to allocate the money and looks at all the different charities and makes the very hard decisions about where that pool of funds is going to go.

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

The best teacher is very interactive.

The Gates Foundation has learned that two questions can predict how much kids learn: 'Does your teacher use class time well?' and, 'When you're confused, does your teacher help you get straightened out?'

Money has always been in politics. And I'm not sure you'd want money to be completely out of politics.

I have a particular relationship with Vinod Khosla because he's got a lot of very interesting science-based energy startups.

The thing about HD-DVD that is attractive to Microsoft is that it's very pro-consumer in letting you copy all movies up onto the hard disk.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

In order to deal with all the medical cost demands and other challenges in the U.S., as we look to raise that revenue, the rich will have to pay slightly more. That's quite clear.

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.

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

If you're low-income in the United States, you have a higher chance of going to jail than you do of getting a four-year degree. And that doesn't seem entirely fair.

My son likes to go see mines and electric plants, or the Large Hadron Collider, and we've had a chance to see a lot of interesting stuff.

If all my bridge coach ever told me was that I was 'satisfactory,' I would have no hope of ever getting better. How would I know who was the best? How would I know what I was doing differently?

China has many successful entrepreneurs and business people. I hope that more people of insight will put their talents to work to improve the lives of poor people in China and around the world, and seek solutions for them.