Larry Ellison

"When I started Oracle, what I wanted to do was to create an environment where I would enjoy working. That was my primary goal. Sure, I wanted to make a living. I certainly never expected to become rich, certainly not this rich. I mean, rich does not even describe this. This is surreal."

"I hate the PC, with a passion."

"It's Microsoft versus mankind, with Microsoft having only a slight lead"

"If the Internet turns out not to be the future of computing, we're toast. But if it is, we're golden."

"Twenty minutes compared to never, that's a lot. Our customer, the Central Intelligence Agency, would get very upset [if] somebody looks in their database."

"If an open source product gets good enough, we'll simply take it. So the great thing about open source is nobody owns it – a company like Oracle is free to take it for nothing, include it in our products and charge for support, and that's what we'll do. So it is not disruptive at all – you have to find places to add value. Once open source gets good enough, competing with it would be insane. … We don't have to fight open source, we have to exploit open source."

"The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?"

"Really great blogs do not take the place of great microprocessors. Great blogs do not replace great software. Lots and lots of blogs does not replace lots and lots of sales."

"Great achievers are driven, not so much by the pursuit of success, but by the fear of failure."

"So remember this graduates: when people start saying you're crazy, you just might be on to the most important innovation of your life."

"I had all the disadvantages necessary for success."

"Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on."