Bill Gates Philanthropy Quotes & Sayings

Bill Gates has become the patron saint of philanthropy and the poster child of rebirth, and from what I can tell, rightly so. — John Battelle

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

Here are economies like China's economy where it's less than a tenth [of a percent] today, although it is growing, is quite small, because of the notion that the government takes care of everything, and Europe and China, philanthropy has not been nearly of the same scale. — Bill Gates

On his Giving Pledge philanthropy: The way I got the message out was to get a copy of FORBES, look down that 400 list and start making phone calls! Bill and Melinda [Gates] did the same thing. So keep publishing
the list so I can milk it. — Warren Buffett

If you think of global public goods like polio eradication, the kind of risk-taking new approach, philanthropy really does have a role to play there, because government doesn't do R&D about new things naturally as much as it probably should, and so philanthropy's there. — Bill Gates

Philanthropy should be voluntary. — Bill 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

Effective philanthropy requires a lot of time and creativity - the same kind of focus and skills that building a business requires. — Bill Gates

Contrary to Piketty's rentier hypothesis, I don't see anyone on the [Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans] whose ancestors bought a great parcel of land in 1780 and have been accumulating family wealth by collecting rents ever since. In America, that old money is long gone - through instability, inflation, taxes, philanthropy, and spending. — Bill Gates

The only role other than paying their taxes, whatever those are, the only role for philanthropy broadly - of which the rich should give disproportionately - the more, the better - and I think there is a positive trend in that direction - there are certain risk-taking things, like trying out a new type of charter school or funding a new kind of medicine. — Bill Gates

Philanthropy, although it's tiny compared to the government, it's 2% of the US economy, which is the largest percentage, other than the Middle East. — Bill Gates

Philanthropy is fun and fulfilling. — Bill Gates