Aaron Swartz Quotes

Social Security got passed because John D. Rockefeller was sick of having to take money out of his profits to pay for his workers’ pension funds. Why do that, when you can just let the government take money from the workers?

Normally, I just sit in my quiet little room and do the small things that bring me pleasures. I read my books, I answer email, I write a little bit.

There’s all sorts of stuff people want to publish anonymously.

I was around computers from birth; we had one of the first Macs, which came out shortly before I was born, and my dad ran a company that wrote computer operating systems. I don’t think I have any particular technical skills; I just got a really large head start.

Through the Internet, I’ve developed a strong social network – something I could never do if I had to keep my choice of peers within school grounds.

Nearly 75,000 Demand Progress members have urged Congress to fix the Patriot Act.

Big stories need human stakes.

We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks.

Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it – their shareholders would revolt at anything less.

I first met Jimbo Wales, the face of Wikipedia, when he came to speak at Stanford.

We must erase bin Laden’s ugly legacy, not extend it: by ending the Patriot Act’s erosion of our civil liberties, we can protect the freedoms that make America worth fighting for.

Senator Wyden continues to be the Senate’s truest champion of an open Internet.

Seriously, who really cares how long the Nile river is, or who was the first to discover cheese? How is memorizing that ever going to help anyone? Instead, we need to give kids projects that allow them to exercise their minds and discover things for themselves.

When I go to a library and I see the librarian at her desk reading, I’m afraid to interrupt her, even though she sits there specifically so that she may be interrupted, even though being interrupted for reasons like this by people like me is her very job.

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.

Most people, it seems, stretch the truth to make themselves seem more impressive. I, it seems, stretch the truth to make myself look worse.

Even among those who I would not count as ‘friends,’ I have met many people online who have simply commented on my work or are interested by what I do.

The library world is set up on this model where the library is a physical building and has a number of books and serves a geographical community.

Computers will be able to do all the mundane tasks in our daily lives.

Now, the typical way you make good things happen in Washington is you find a bunch of wealthy companies who agree with you.

The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it.

Assume nobody else has any idea what they’re doing, either.

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

Without the ability to talk about government power, there’s no way for citizens to make sure this power isn’t being misused.

I’m not such a nuisance to the world, and the kick I get out of living can, I suppose, justify the impositions I make on it. But when life isn’t so fun, well, then I start to wonder. What’s the point of going on if it’s just trouble for us both? My friends will miss me, I am told.