Innovation is powered by ideas, and some of the world’s biggest breakthroughs began with bold statements. This page showcases quotes from inventors, technologists, researchers, and entrepreneurs whose words anticipated the future, challenged the present, or reshaped how the world uses technology. Explore how ideas in tech were sparked by powerful language.
Select a quote below to see how it inspired technological change.
Arthur C. Clarke, 1962
January 01, 1962 – Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Eric Schmidt, 2010
August 04, 2010 – Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003
Marc Andreessen, 2011
August 20, 2011 – Software is eating the world
Arthur C. Clarke, 1968
January 19, 1968 – Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
Steve Jobs, 2005
June 12, 2005 – Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
Bill Gates, 2005
January 06, 2005 – The future of computing lies in the seamless integration of devices.
Matt Mullenweg
January 07, 2025 – Technology is best when it brings people together.
Mark Zuckerberg, 2019
January 08, 2019 – My challenge for 2019 is to host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society — the opportunities, the challenges, the hopes, and the anxieties.
Steve Jobs, 2007
January 09, 2007 – Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
Linus Torvalds, 2000
January 10, 2000 – Talk is cheap. Show me the code.
Steve Jobs, 2005
June 12, 2005 – Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.
HAL 9000, 1968
January 12, 1992 – I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992.
Bill Gates, 2000
January 13, 2000 – Bill Gates said Steve’s promotion would let him focus on his passion for building software and shaping Microsoft’s future.
William Gibson, 1992
April 19, 1992 – The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.
Alan Kay, 1971
January 15, 1971 – The best way to predict the future is to invent it
Werner von Siemens, 1886
January 16, 1886 – Technology has been given the means at present to generate electric power of unlimited strength inexpensively and easily wherever labor is available. The fact will be of essential importance in several areas of technology.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
January 17, 1961 – We must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
Jimmy Wales
January 18 — Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge
Tim Berners-Lee
January 19 – The Web does not just connect machines, it connects people
Barack Obama, 2015
January 20, 2015 – I intend to protect a free and open Internet, extend its reach to every classroom and every community, and help folks build the fastest networks so that the next generation of digital innovators and entrepreneurs have the platform to keep reshaping our world.
Larry Page
January 21 – Always deliver more than expected
Alan Kay, 1971
January 22, 1971 – The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Tim Berners-Lee
January 23 – The Web does not just connect machines, it connects people
Steve Jobs, 1984
January 24, 1984 – Hello, I’m Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag.
Ronald Reagan, 1984
January 25, 1984 – America has always been greatest when we dared to be great.
Stewart Brand
January 26 — Information wants to be free
Steve Jobs, 2010
January 27, 2010 – iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.
Bill Gates, 2015
January 28, 2015 – I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some
Marc Andreessen, 2011
January 29, 2011 – Software is eating the world
Tim Berners-Lee
January 30 — No one should have to ask permission to create on the web
Linus Torvalds, 1999
January 31, 2024 – Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don’t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands. You have a product that’s killing people.

