Quotes from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children

John Wood ·  272 pages

Rating: (3.9K votes)


“There are two ways to remove a Band-Aid : slowly and painfully, or quickly and painfully. Your choice.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“The biggest risk is that a lot of people will try to talk you out of pursuing your dream. The world has too many people who are happy to discuss why something might not work, and too few who will cheer you and say, "I'm there for you." The more time you spend navel-gazing, the longer you give those negative gravitational forces to keep you in their tether.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“If you are thinking about making some adjustments in you life to allow you to help change the world, my heartfelt recommendation is not to spend too much time thinking about it. Just dive in.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“Setelah manusia menghasilkan banyak uang, dia biasanya menjadi pendengar yang buruk.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“Right now what I need to think about is what would be possible, not all the reasons I can't make a change.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children



“Sometimes, it's really important to move with all deliberate speed. If there is something out there that you want to do to make the world a better place, don't focus on the obstacles. Don't ask for permission. Just dive in. Don't let the naysayers get you down.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“I knew that I had to free myself from any constraints that would prevent the pursuit of these dreams.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“The headmaster explained. Books were considered precious. The school had so few that the teachers did not want to risk the children damaging them. I wondered how a book could impart knowledge if it was locked up, but kept that thought to myself.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“if we were lucky enough to be living a good life, we should recognize this gift and thank God for it by looking out for others who need our help in breaking out of the cycle of poverty.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“Look, there are two ways to remove a Band-Aid: slowly and painfully, or quickly and painfully. Your choice.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children



“Did it really matter how many copies of Windows we sold in Taiwan this month when millions of children were without access to books?”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“Did my job really matter? A successful year would only help a rich company get richer.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


“The events of September eleventh remind us that we live in a very confused world. I think that how we respond says a lot about our capacity as human beings to be optimistic in the face of nihilism, and to prove that light can win out over darkness. I am not saying that education is going to solve all the world’s problems. But it’s something direct, and tangible. We can do it right now. You can go home tonight knowing that within a year, a few new schools will be open. I hope you’ll choose to support our work.”
― John Wood, quote from Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children


About the author

John Wood
Born place: Hartford, Connecticut, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“But we wanted you to fill up on good things before you had to face the bad.”
― Jennifer Latham, quote from Dreamland Burning


“We are never going to sing this again," she told them, trying to explain her reasoning to the surprised youngsters. The song reinforced all the crudest stereotypes of what a Negro could do or be. Sometimes, she knew, the most important battles for dignity, pride, and progress were fought with the simplest of actions.”
― quote from Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race


“The politicians were in full bay, particularly those of his own party who had been urging, without success, his support of antislavery legislation which he feared would lose him the border states, held to the Union so far by his promise that no such laws would be passed. It also seemed to these Republicans that entirely too many Democrats were seated in high places, specifically in the cabinet and the army; and now their anger was increased by apprehension. About to open their campaigns for reëlection in November, they had counted on battlefield victories to increase their prospects for victory at the polls. Instead, the main eastern army, under the Democrat McClellan—“McNapoleon,” they called him—had held back, as if on purpose, and then retreated to the James, complaining within hearing of the voters that the Administration was to blame. Privately, many of the Jacobins agreed with the charge, though for different reasons, the main one being that Lincoln, irresolute by nature, had surrounded himself with weak-spined members of the opposition party. Fessenden of Maine put it plainest: “The simple truth is, there was never such a shambling half-and-half set of incapables collected in one government since the world began.”
― Shelby Foote, quote from The Civil War, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville


“I had read it some time ago but was so completely immersed that I retained nothing. This has been an intermittent, lifelong enigma. Through early adolescence I sat and read for hours in a small grove of weed trees near the railroad track in Germantown. Like Gumby I would enter a book wholeheartedly and sometimes venture so deeply it was as if I were living within it. I finished many books in such a manner there, closing the covers ecstatically yet having no memory of the content by the time I returned home. This disturbed me but I kept this strange affliction to myself. I look at the covers of such books and their contents remain a mystery that I cannot bring myself to solve. Certain books I loved and lived within yet cannot remember.”
― Patti Smith, quote from M Train


“Life isn’t some walk in the park where you can make wishes on dandelions. Life is work. Life is a journey of triumphs and sorrows. Of successes and failures. Of learning experiences and growing opportunities. You can’t sit back and expect different results when you’re not doing anything to change.”
― Meghan Quinn, quote from Dear Life


Interesting books

Tangled Threads
(17.1K)
Tangled Threads
by Jennifer Estep
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
(14.2K)
The Making of the At...
by Richard Rhodes
Demon Kissed
(4.5K)
Demon Kissed
by H.M. Ward
The Red Garden
(16.5K)
The Red Garden
by Alice Hoffman
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
(43K)
Committed: A Skeptic...
by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
(40.9K)
The Disreputable His...
by E. Lockhart

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.