Helping people doesn’t have to be an unsound financial strategy.
MELINDA GATESHelping people doesn’t have to be an unsound financial strategy.
MELINDA GATESI realized that the only way to get into a good college was to be valedictorian or salutatorian. So that was my goal.
MELINDA GATESConnect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we all have in common.
MELINDA GATESAround the world we have girls in primary school at about the same rate now as boys, but keeping them in quality secondary schools is where the world is lagging. I’m seeing a lot of countries look at this now.
MELINDA GATESWhat great changes have not been ambitious?
MELINDA GATESPhilanthropy is not about the money. It’s about using whatever resources you have at your fingertips and applying them to improving the world.
MELINDA GATESIf you ask, who has the chance to move into the city and get a good job out in the developing world? It’s a man. Who’s left to care for the kids back at home? The woman is.
MELINDA GATESSometimes it’s the people you can’t help who inspire you the most.
MELINDA GATESThe biggest pieces of work that we do are vaccines, because those save lives, and also family planning. Because if a woman can space the births of her children, it changes everything for her health and her child’s health.
MELINDA GATESI felt suicidal. I couldn’t stop crying. I remember thinking, wouldn’t it be great if the car crashed and I died?
MELINDA GATESA woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.
MELINDA GATESNow we just really need to do the work, which we’re doing, to get contraceptives out to women worldwide.
MELINDA GATESAs a woman finds economic opportunity, even if she’s only earning a couple of dollars a day, if she can save it on her phone, she then makes different decisions for her household than her husband might.
MELINDA GATESWe 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 GATESMake sure you continue to trust what you know now about yourself and stay true to what you believe in.
MELINDA GATESOne life is worth no more or less than any other.
MELINDA GATES