25 Quotes by Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz was an American computer programmer, writer, and activist known for his work on open access to information and the co-founding of the website Reddit. Swartz was also a prominent advocate for internet freedom and was involved in various activist campaigns, including the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Sadly, Swartz took his own life at the age of 26, leaving behind a legacy of activism and a commitment to making the internet a more open and democratic space. (Bio)
Aaron Swartz Quotes
What is the most important thing you could be working on in the world right now? ... And if you're not working on that, why aren't you?
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. (Meaning)
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.
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.
There is no justice in following unjust laws.
No, you can’t force other people to change. You can, however, change just about everything else. And usually, that’s enough.
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.
Now everyone has a license to speak, it’s a question of who gets heard.
I don’t want to be happy. I just want to change the world.
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t immoral - it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Life is short ... so why waste it doing something dumb?
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks... 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?
Creativity comes from applying things you learn in other fields to the field you work in.
There is no justice in following unjust laws. It's time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
As the Internet breaks down the last justifications for a professional class of politicians, it also builds up the tools for replacing them.
Books are totally useless unless you take their advice. If you just keep reading them, thinking "that's so insightful! that changes everything," but never actually doing anything different, then pretty quickly the feeling will wear off and you'll start searching for another book to fill the void.
The adults were completely wrong.
Reality is painful -- it's so much easier to keep doing stuff you know you're good at or else to pick something so hard there's no point at which it's obvious you're failing -- but it's impossible to get better without confronting it.
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. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Steadfastness is a noble quality, but unguided by knowledge or humility, it becomes rashness, or obstinacy.
Most people's major life changes don't come from reading an article in the newspaper; they come from reading longer-form essays or thoughtful books, which are much more convincing and detailed.
What is "this drive"? It's the tendency to not simply accept things as they are but to want to think about them, to understand them. To not be content to simply feel sad but to ask what sadness means. To not just get a bus pass but to think about the economic reasons getting a bus pass makes sense. I call this tendency the intellectual.
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.
We have an economy that works for the rich by cheating the poor, and unequal schools are the result of that, not the cause. (Meaning)
― Aaron Swartz Quotes
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Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
