Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10 years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus‘ success in the spreadsheet – basically, the applications business. And over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of those goals. And now they are completely lost.

The PC has improved the world in just about every area you can think of. Amazing developments in communications, collaboration and efficiencies. New kinds of entertainment and social media. Access to information and the ability to give a voice people who would never have been heard.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.

I think the definition of a book is changing.

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

America’s experience, like many others, teaches us that fostering entrepreneurship is not just about crafting the right economic policy or developing the best educated curricula. It’s about creating an entire climate in which innovation and ideas flourish.

Imagine your family finally making it from nothing to something, and finally getting things going, and finally buying a beautiful house and taking care of your children – and the next day, it’s completely all gone. Zero. Boom. Flat broke. So that’s when I had to man up.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

A lot of artists fail when they try to act, and they flop. So when I get into acting, it’s going to be to do it well, something good, something of quality. I want people to say, ‚Wow, that movie‘ – or that show or whatever – ‚turned out really well.‘

I’ve had a lot of success; I’ve had failures, so I learn from the failure.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.

I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

All my records and videos were groundbreaking.

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

The Internet is a toilet. It is.

Necessity… the mother of invention.

I’m not a macroeconomics person.

Electronic books are junk.

I didn’t want to be a writer, but I became one. And now I have many readers, in many countries. I think that’s a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I’m proud of it and I enjoy it, and it is strange to say it this way, but I respect it.

We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected.

Of my mental cycles, I devote maybe ten percent to business thinking. Business isn’t that complicated. I wouldn’t want to put it on my business card.

You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.

Once you get into space, you can really unleash a lot of creativity, but the launch itself? I have been through all of the creative ways, and believe me, chemical rockets are the best.

There is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.

I do think there should be some regulations on AI.

The first time I stepped on an NBA court I became a businessman.

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pele.

The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor.

He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.

I’ve found that men I’ve dated who are in the same business can be really competitive. I’ve found a great group of girlfriends in the same business who aren’t competitive, but a few times guys have started comparing careers and it has been… challenging.

If anyone has a vested interest in space solar power, it would have to be me.

The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.

With a computer, you make your changes on the screen and then you print out a clean copy. With a typewriter, you can’t get a clean manuscript unless you start again from scratch. It’s an incredibly tedious process.

When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

America has tossed its cap over the wall of space.

England is a nation of shopkeepers.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

I’m not a futurist.

How do people relate to movies now, when they’re on portable devices or streaming them? It’s not as much about going to the movies. That experience has changed.

When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, ‚Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?‘ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise.

Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.

The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.

Whatever good things we build end up building us.

It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’re prepared for it.

Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.

I don’t write letters anymore.

Collegiality is crucial to the success of our mission. We could not do the job the Constitution assigns to us if we didn’t – to use one of Justice Antonin Scalia’s favorite expressions – ‚Get over it!‘