“[640K] 640 K ought to be enough for anybody.”

— Bill Gates

Often attributed to Gates in 1981. Gates considered the IBM PC's 640 KB program memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_memory#640_KB_barrier a significant breakthrough over 8-bit systems that were typically limited to 64 KB, but he has denied making this remark. Also see the 1989 and 1993 remarks above. : I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time … I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640 K of memory is enough. There's never a citation; the quotation just floats like a rumor, repeated again and again. :* Gates (19 January 1996), " Career Opportunities in Computing—and More http://groups.google.com/group/alt.folklore.computers/msg/99ce4b0555bf35f4". Bloomberg Business News : Do you realize the pain the industry went through while the IBM PC was limited to 640 K? The machine was going to be 512 K at one point, and we kept pushing it up. I never said that statement — I said the opposite of that. :* Gates talks, https://web.archive.org/web/20110202030010/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/gatesivu.htm, February 20, 2011, U.S. News & World Report, August 20, 2001, October 8, 2014 http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/gatesivu.htm, Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "[640K] 640 K ought to be enough for anybody." by Bill Gates?

Bill Gates92

American business magnate and philanthropist 1955

Related quotes

“As long as I was in Washington I never met anybody that I thought was good enough, who knew enough, or who loved enough to make sexual decisions for anybody else.”

Joycelyn Elders (1933) American pediatrician, public health administrator, and former Surgeon General of the United States

Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, "Abstinence" http://www.sho.com/site/video/player.do?video=/134/2006/abstinence&seriesid=134 [4.10], 5 June 2006

“Nothin's good enough for anybody else, it seems.”

Edie Brickell (1966) singer from the United States

"Circle"
Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988)
Context: When I'm all alone it's the best way to be.
When I'm by myself nobody else can say goodbye. Everything is temporary anyway.
When the streets are wet — the colors slip into the sky.
But I don't know why that means you and I are — that means you and... I quit, I give up.
Nothin's good enough for anybody else, it seems.

“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

“Yes, that is the equality of man. Slaughter anybody who is better than you are, and then we shall be equal soon enough. All equally dead.”

T. H. White book The Book of Merlyn

The Book of Merlyn (1977)

“You'll do what you think you want to do, or what you think you ought to do. If you're very lucky, luckier than anybody I know, the two will coincide.”

Wallace Stegner book Angle of Repose

Source: Angle of Repose

“The id isn’t satisfied with “enough,” because enough is never enough. The id always needs more, or specifically, more than anybody else. So “enough” becomes “more than” which becomes “all.” And even then, the id fears that all can be taken away; therefore crushing the capacity of others to resist becomes paramount.”

Malcolm Azania book From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain

Source: From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain (2007), Chapter 3 “Clash of the Icons” (p. 75)

“If anybody felt worse than I did, it was Amos. I had just enough magic to turn myself into a falcon and him into a hamster (hey, I was rushed!)”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“When we’ve agreed that something ought to be done, or not done, we get very stubborn. And when that meets up with another stubbornness, it can make a kind of war, a struggle of ideas, the only kind of war anybody ever wins.”

Ursula K. Le Guin book The Eye of the Heron

Source: The Eye of the Heron (1978), Chapter 3 (p. 44)

“But I believe this: by and large, the United States ought to be able to choose for its President anybody that it wants, regardless of the number of terms he has served. That is what I believe. Now, some people have said "You let him get enough power and this will lead toward a one-party government." That, I don't believe. I have got the utmost faith in the long-term common sense of the American people. Therefore, I don't think there should be any inhibitions other than those that were in the 35-year age limit and so on. I think that was enough, myself.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Answer to question seeking his views on limiting U.S. presidents to two terms, news conference, Washington, D.C. (October 5, 1956), in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1956, p. 862.
1950s

“[640K] 640 K ought to be enough for anybody.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Bill Gates92

Related quotes

Related topics