Bill Gates Quotes

A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.

When vastly wealthy people say, 'I'm not leaving my kids any money,' it's typically not true.

Why should men leave great fortunes to their children? If this is done from affection, is it not misguided affection? Observation teaches that, generally speaking, it is not well for the children that they should be so burdened.

If you're extremely rich, and you have got children, my theory was, you give them enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing.

I want to see wealth cascading down the generations.

The saying was that Madam Walker made the money, and her daughter - my great-grandmother - spent it.

I personally think that people who are inheriting the wealth must have an agreement on how that wealth will flow from generation to generation, how they would like to spend it, and have similar philosophies around philanthropy to ensure continuity and scaling up.

Rich parents are famous both for miserliness and astonishing longevity. And, when they finally do die, you'll find they've left their estate in inviolate trust to the golden retrievers.

Rich men's sons are seldom rich men's fathers.

Some people want to amass a great amount of wealth and make a great looking obituary. I'm going to die with more money than is good to leave my son.

I spoil my children rotten and hope to leave them enough so they can do the same to theirs.

A first-generation fortune is the most likely to be given away, but once a fortune is inherited it's less likely that a very high percentage will go back to society.

The death tax punishes the American dream - making it virtually impossible for the average American family to build wealth across generations.

Kid’s starting out with a great deal of money is not necessarily good for the children or society.

My kids certainly aren't going to have the money. They don't need it.

Our society has a mentality that elderly people pass on their wealth to their son or immediate relatives, and I think we all do it. It's a part of nature and is an exaggerated topic.

I was born into it and there was nothing I could do about it. It was there, like air or food, or any other element. The only question with wealth is what you do with it.

I have drifted away from thinking about these philanthropic things. And it was only as the wealth got large enough and Melinda and I had talked about the view that wealth wasn't something that would be good to just pass to the children.

My grandfather... saw where inherited wealth ruined people. And my grandfather was right.

I regard large inherited wealth as a misfortune, which merely serves to dull men's faculties. A man who possesses great wealth should, therefore, allow only a small portion to descend to his relatives. Even if he has children, I consider it a mistake to hand over to them considerable sums of money beyond what is necessary for their education. To do so merely encourages laziness and impedes the healthy development of the individual's capacity to make an independent position for himself.

Parents do not owe their progeny an inheritance no matter how much money they have. One of the surest ways to produce loafers and freeloaders is to let children know that their future is assured.

7 percent of inheritors get two-thirds of all the wealth transfers..

Don’t pass unpaid bills onto your kids.

The - the early Rockefellers made their wealth from being in certain businesses and - and remained personally very wealthy. Tatas were different in the sense the future generations were not so wealthy. They - they were involved in the business, but most of the family wealth is put into trust, and the family did not, in fact, enjoy enormous wealth.

My mom's made it clear to me that, like, there's no trust fund.