Melinda Gates Quotes & Sayings

It is still just unbelievable to us that diarrhea is one of the leading causes of child deaths in the world. — Melinda Gates

Having children made us look differently at all these things that we take for granted, like taking your child to get a vaccine against measles or polio. — Melinda Gates

I'm constantly saying to myself, 'I'm lucky I was born in the United States.' — Melinda Gates

We talk a lot in our home together about where we're going, what I'm doing. — Melinda Gates

Bill and I both firmly believe that even the most difficult global health problems can be solved. — Melinda Gates

The world is full of what seem like intractable problems. Often we let that paralyze us. Instead, let is spur you to action. There are some people in the world that we can't help, but there are so many more that we can. So when you see a mother and her children suffering in another part of the world, don't look away. Look right at them. Let them break your heart, then let your empathy and your talents help you make a difference in the lives of others. Whether you volunteer every week or just a few times a year, your time and unique skills are invaluable. — Melinda Gates

Think, for a moment, about our educational ladder.
We've strengthened the steps lifting students from elementary school to junior high, and those from junior high to high school.
But, that critical step taking students from high school into adulthood is badly broken. And it can no longer support the weight it must bear. — Melinda Gates

When we better understand the realities of these women's lives, we are able to design and deliver solutions that are more useful to them. — Melinda Gates

There's a false perception that women in Africa somehow don't love their babies they way we do, don't grieve their loss the way we would. That is simply not true. — Melinda Gates

I'm wholehearted about whatever I do. — Melinda Gates

If you don't have an effective teacher in front of the classroom, you won't change the trajectory for students. — Melinda Gates

If you look back at history, [Dale ] Carnegie highlighted the need for libraries to be a place where everyone could go to read if you didn't have access to books. Philanthropy can be a place that'll take a risk or point to areas to make sure they are the right government investments to reduce inequalities. — Melinda Gates

Contraceptives unlock one of the most dormant, but potentially powerful assets in development: women as decision-makers. When women have the power to make choices about their families, they tend to decide precisely what demographers, economists, and development experts recommend. They invest in the long-term human capital of their families. — Melinda Gates

I felt suicidal. I couldn't stop crying. I remember thinking, wouldn't it be great if the car crashed and I died? — Melinda Gates

Philanthropy is not about the money. It's about using whatever resources you have at your fingertips and applying them to improving the world. — Melinda Gates

If we're going to make progress on this issue [of contraception], we have to be really clear about what our agenda is. We're not talking about abortion. We're not talking about population control. What I'm talking about is giving women the power to save their lives, to save their children's lives and to give their families the best possible future. — Melinda Gates

It's really one of my all-time favorite things to do. To go out and really see the kids and visit the moms who are in these programs because I think I really get to see what happens on the ground and connect with them about what changes are that happen in their lives because of some of the giving that we're able to do. — Melinda Gates

All lives have an equal value. — Melinda Gates

A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult. — Melinda Gates

After a number of years dating, we decided we were good partners. — Melinda Gates

If we don't empower women, we don't allow them to unlock the potential of themselves and their children. — Melinda Gates

I realized that the only way to get into a good college was to be valedictorian or salutatorian. So that was my goal. — Melinda Gates

Human-centered design. Meeting people where they are and really taking their needs and feedback into account. When you let people participate in the design process, you find that they often have ingenious ideas about what would really help them. And it's not a onetime thing; it's an iterative process. — Melinda Gates

Vaccines are a miracle cure. Eight out of 10 children are getting vaccines. — Melinda Gates

Women and girls should be able to determine their own future, no matter where they're born. — Melinda Gates

When girls are educated and free to pursue their passions, they contribute more to a thriving society. When women have a voice, they raise it to demand a life that is greater than what they've been told they have a right to expect. And these demands change the future for everyone. — Melinda Gates

The fact that 98 percent of women in [the U.S.] who are sexually experienced say they use birth control doesn't make sex any less sacred. It just means that they're getting to make choices about their lives. — Melinda Gates

My background was computer science and business school, so eventually I worked my way up where I was running product groups - development, testing, marketing, user education. — Melinda Gates

It's important to remember that behind every data point is a daughter, a mother, a sister - a person with hopes and dreams. — Melinda Gates

Deep human connection is ... the purpose and the result of a meaningful life - and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity, and humanity. — Melinda Gates

One life is worth no more or less than any other — Melinda Gates

We set out what's going to be our work time versus our foundation time versus family time, and we'll reassess that ... sometimes every week. — Melinda Gates

When were you born, who are your parents, where did you grow up? None of us earns these things. These things were given to us. So when we strip away all of our luck and our privilege, and we consider where we'd be without them, it becomes much easier to see someone who's poor and say, "That could be me." And that's empathy. — Melinda Gates

Birth control has almost completely and totally disappeared from the global health agenda, and the victims of this paralysis are the people of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. — Melinda Gates

But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids. — Melinda Gates

When we invest in women and girls, we are investing in the people who invest in everyone else. — Melinda Gates

Kids are falling through the cracks and nobody notices it. That to me is what's wrong with the school system. — Melinda Gates

Helping people doesn't have to be an unsound financial strategy. — Melinda Gates

In the developing world, it's about time that women are on the agenda. For instance, 80 percent of small-subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and yet all the programs in the past were predominantly focused on men. — Melinda Gates

Everyone agrees that the failure of our high schools is tragic. It's bad business, and it's bad policy. But we act as if it can't be helped. It can be helped. We designed these high schools; we can redesign them. — Melinda Gates

Sometimes it's the people you can't help who inspire you the most. — Melinda Gates

Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we all have in common. — Melinda Gates

I care much more about saving the lives of mothers and babies than I do about a fancy museum somewhere. — Melinda Gates

As a parent, the responsible thing to do - if you love your child - is to vaccinate your child. — Melinda Gates

I think it's very important that we instill in our kids that it has nothing to do with their name or their situation that they're growing up in; it has to do with who they are as an individual. — Melinda Gates

Women around the world should have a tool that helps them plan their pregnancies. — Melinda Gates

The premise of this foundation is one life on this planet is no more valuable than the next. — Melinda Gates

We have to be careful in how we use this light shined on us. — Melinda Gates

I'm happy we have three healthy children and we'll stay with three healthy children. — Melinda Gates

If you invest in a girl or a woman, you are investing in everybody else. — Melinda Gates

You can have the best vaccines for a woman or her child, but if you can't get her to come and get them then they won't work. — Melinda Gates

Microsoft certainly makes products for the Macintosh. — Melinda Gates

Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It's what propels societies forward. — Melinda Gates

I am inspired by the women I meet everywhere I go. They have to work so hard just to make sure their families survive, but somehow they stay optimistic and do everything in their power to make the future better than the past. — Melinda Gates

I think the Americans need to understand that a lot of times the children are bored in school, and that is why they are not staying in. — Melinda Gates

Government funding that's coming from the United States is making a huge difference on the ground in the developing world. It's really palpable - it's making a huge difference saving lives. — Melinda Gates

If you want to lift up an economy in Africa, you basically start with the women. — Melinda Gates

I want to live as private a life as I can because of our children. — Melinda Gates

You can't save kids just with vaccines. — Melinda Gates

We started our foundation because we believe we have a real opportunity to help advance equity around the world, to help make sure that, no matter where a person is born, he or she has the chance to live a healthy, productive life. — Melinda Gates

That's universal - we all want to bring every good thing to our children. But what's not universal is our ability to provide every good thing. — Melinda Gates

Bill [Gates] and I believe philanthropy can only be effective if it starts things and proves whether they actually work or not. That's the place that governments often don't want to, or can't, work. — Melinda Gates

What great changes have not been ambitious? — Melinda Gates

When we invest in women, we invest in a powerful source of global development — Melinda Gates

There are absolutely lots of teachers who are trying to come into the profession, but they are not attracted enough to say, 'I'm going to switch careers to do it,' or they are often not retained ... because the salaries and the compensation aren't there to make it happen. — Melinda Gates

All women, everywhere, have the same hopes: we want to be self-sufficient and create better lives for ourselves and our loved ones. — Melinda Gates

But we also believe in taking risks, because that's how you move things along. — Melinda Gates

We started this mostly from an intellectual place. — Melinda Gates

Women speaking up for themselves and for those around them is the strongest force we have to change the world. — Melinda Gates

We look in our own backyard and say, 'How do we help at-risk families, at risk youth? How do we think through some of the problems affecting the Pacific Northwest and make some change there?' — Melinda Gates

Take time to learn about the lives of women around the world-and try to play a small part in their fight to create the future they deserve. — Melinda Gates

If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped. — Melinda Gates

We would be driving down the street in a place like Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and started to see, my gosh, the only people that have shoes are men. Why does that woman have a baby in her belly and one on her back, and she's carrying a huge load of bananas? You start to ask these questions. — Melinda Gates