Aaron Swartz quotes

Think deeply about things. Don't just go along because that's the way things are or that's what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think. (Aaron Swartz)

Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.

Aaron Swartz

There is no justice in following unjust laws.

Aaron Swartz

Real education is about genuine understanding and the ability to figure things out on your own; not about making sure every 7th grader has memorized all the facts some bureaucrats have put in the 7th grade curriculum.

Aaron Swartz

With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge - we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?

Aaron Swartz

Being around some of the bright lights of the technology world and having them expect great things helps you sit down and do it seriously.

Aaron Swartz

Now, as far as I know, nobody has ever put up the U.S.'s nuclear missiles on the Internet. I mean, it's not something I've heard about.

Aaron Swartz

Writing an encyclopedia is hard. To do anywhere near a decent job, you have to know a great deal of information about an incredibly wide variety of subjects. Writing so much text is difficult, but doing all the background research seems impossible.

Aaron Swartz

At the end of the day, we have an economy that works for the rich by cheating the poor, and unequal schools are the result of that, not the cause.

Aaron Swartz

The law about what is stealing is very clear. Stealing is taking something away from someone so they cannot use it. There's no way that making a copy of something is stealing under that definition.

Aaron Swartz

There are a lot of people, a lot of powerful people, who want to clamp down on the Internet. And to be honest, there aren't a whole lot who have a vested interest in protecting it from all of that. (Aaron Swartz)

The enemies of the freedom to connect have not disappeared.

Aaron Swartz

We won this fight because everyone made themselves the hero of their own story. Everyone took it as their job to save this crucial freedom. They threw themselves into it. They did whatever they could think of to do. They didn't stop to ask anyone for permission.

Aaron Swartz

Geeks seem a lot more willing to treat people based on what they can do rather than who they are.

Aaron Swartz

I feel that if I only convince people that the other side is a reasonable position to take, even if they themselves don't take it, then I've been a success.

Aaron Swartz

On the one hand, I want to be very open about everything, On the other, I heavily defend people's right to privacy.

Aaron Swartz

I'm a teenage kid who's interested in improving the world (mostly through law, politics, and technology).

Aaron Swartz

The people rose up, and they caused a sea change in Washington.

Aaron Swartz

There are those struggling to change this.

Aaron Swartz

There's a battle going on right now, a battle to define everything that happens on the Internet in terms of traditional things that the law understands.

Aaron Swartz

New technology, instead of bringing us greater freedom, would have snuffed out fundamental rights we had always taken for granted. (Aaron Swartz)

Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations.

Aaron Swartz

I'm a teenage kid who's interested in improving the world (mostly through law, politics, and technology). This year, I'm going to try to update my weblog daily with interesting thoughts, program some interesting new website software, and work on some website projects that help people better understand what's going on in American politics.

Aaron Swartz

Geeks seem a lot more willing to treat people based on what they can do rather than who they are. This isn't unique to kids, of course. The Internet has an amazingly liberating aspect for everyone from blacks to the blind. So perhaps that's one reason why I'm especially concerned about draconian proposals for an "Internet Drivers License” or a crackdown on anonymity. Quite aside from the impracticality and ineffectiveness of these proposals, they could have the effect of tagging who people are, and reintroducing those indicators that the Internet has removed.

Aaron Swartz