Top 122 Quotes & Sayings by 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.

You can't save kids just with vaccines.

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

We started this mostly from an intellectual place.

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.

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

All lives have an equal value.

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.

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.

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

I learn in a different way. I learn experientially.

Microsoft certainly makes products for the Macintosh.

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.

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

I'm wholehearted about whatever I do.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

When I look at 225 million women who want contraceptives, and then I look at the 52 million unintended pregnancies that could be avoided by addressing this unmet need, where can we have the biggest impact with our voice, our dollars, our partners? It's on contraceptives. I would rather address the problem upstream.

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

One life is worth no more or less than any other

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

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.

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

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.

I went to business school, and I went straight from that to a nine-year career at Microsoft. Eventually, I ran a big chunk of the consumer products division for Microsoft.Then I left with the birth of our first daughter because Bill and I both wanted to have a few kids.

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

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

Make sure you continue to trust what you know now about yourself and stay true to what you believe in

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

You are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped.

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

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

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

If you don't invest in the woman, empower her, give her the things she needs to lift her family up, you're just not going to make the progress that you want to make. But if you put her at the centre, you can change a lot for that family, and it has ripple effects through the economy.

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

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

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

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.

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

I am Catholic, I was raised Catholic, I am a practicing Catholic. But I say we need to agree to disagree. We have a shared mission around poverty, and I focus on that, because we do a lot with the Catholic Church around poverty alleviation. I'm always looking for: what is the common thread? What do we care about? What do we believe in? We believe in women around the world. We believe in all lives have equal value.

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.

What great changes have not been ambitious?

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

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.

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.