231 Quotes by Melinda Gates

It’s the mark of a backward society – or a society moving backward – when decisions are made for women by men.

We all want to have something to offer. This is how we belong. It’s how we feel included. So if we want to include everyone, then we have to help everyone develop their talents and use their gifts for the good of the community. That’s what inclusion means – everyone is a contributor. And if they need help to become a contributor, then we should help them, because they are full members in a community that supports everyone.

A 2010 academic study on group intelligence found that the collective intelligence of a workgroup is correlated to three factors: the average social sensitivity of the group members, the group’s ability to take turns contributing, and the proportion of females in the group.

Because when you lift up women, you lift up humanity.

I’m wholehearted about whatever I do.

But iPods and iPhones are two things we don’t get for our kids.

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

When I am hurt, when I am in pain, when I am angry with someone for what they have done to me, I know the only way to end these feelings is to accept them.

One of the defining features of hierarchy is that you take the powerful and exciting jobs for yourself and impose the crummy tasks on others. That’s a purpose of hierarchy. So when you come together to share the unpleasant work it’s an attack on hierarchy. Because what’s the point of hierarchy if not getting someone else to do what you don’t want to do? What is hierarchy but a way to escape your share of the responsibilities?