Richard Stallman Quotes

Quotes about:

• If the users don't control the program, the program controls the users. With proprietary software, there is always some entity, the "owner" of the program, that controls the program and through it, exercises power over its users. A nonfree program is a yoke, an instrument of unjust power.

  Richard Stallman

  Exercise, Yoke, Unjust

  "Free Software Is Even More Important Now" by Richard Stallman, www.gnu.org. September 2013.

  34 Copy quote

• Sharing knowledge is the most fundamental act of friendship. Because it is a way you can give something without loosing something.

  Richard Stallman

  Giving, Fundamentals, Way

  43 Copy quote

• Free software' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer'.

  Richard Stallman

  Beer, Thinking, Liberty

  Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.35, Lulu.com

  9 Copy quote

• I did write some code in Java once, but that was the island in Indonesia.

  Richard Stallman

  Writing, Islands, Java

  39 Copy quote

• Programming is not a science. Programming is a craft.

  Richard Stallman

  Crafts, Programming

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• Facebook is not your friend, it is a surveillance engine.

  Richard Stallman

  Surveillance, Engines

  "Facebook Is a Surveillance Engine, Not Friend: Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation". Interview with Sriram Srinivasan and Sangeetha Kandavel, economictimes.indiatimes.com. February 07, 2012.

  36 Copy quote

• You can use any editor you want, but remember that vi vi vi is the text editor of the beast.

  Richard Stallman

  Editors, Use, Want

  YouTube Channel "bfb72"/"Richard Stallman (as St IGNUcius) : Emacs vs Vi", www.youtube.com. March 04, 2008.

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• Free software is software that respects your freedom and the social solidarity of your community. So it's free as in freedom.

  Richard Stallman

  Community, Social, Solidarity

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• People said I should accept the world. Bullshit! I don't accept the world.

  Richard Stallman

  People, Bullshit, World

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• Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died.

  Richard Stallman

  Jobs, Jail, Pioneers

  Political notes from 2011, stallman.org. October 6, 2011.

  12 Copy quote

• Sharing is good, and with digital technology, sharing is easy.

  Richard Stallman

  Technology, Digital Technology, Digital

  "Technology should help us share, not constrain us" by Richard Stallman, www.theguardian.com. April 17, 2012.

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• Playfully doing something difficult, whether useful or not, that is hacking.

  Richard Stallman

  Hacking, Difficult

  "On Hacking". Personal Website, stallman.org.

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• I've read that male dolphins try to have sex with humans, and female apes solicit sex from humans. What is wrong with giving them what they want, if that's what turns you on, or even just to gratify them?

  Richard Stallman

  Sex, Giving, Trying

  "Extreme Pornography Law in the UK". Personal Website, stallman.org. February 19, 2010.

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• Idiots can be defeated but they never admit it.

  Richard Stallman

  Idiot, Defeated

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• The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have survived even in part.

  Richard Stallman

  Practice, Ideas, Fiction

  Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.31, Lulu.com

  63 Copy quote

• There is no system but GNU and Linux is one of it's kernels

  Richard Stallman

  Linux, Kernel

  14 Copy quote

• Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement.

  Richard Stallman

  Movement, Development, Social

  Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.43, Lulu.com

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• Value your freedom or you will lose it, teaches history. "Don't bother us with politics," respond those who don't want to learn.

  Richard Stallman

  Politics, Want, Teach

  "Linŭ, GNU, and freedom". "LinŭWorld", May 2002.

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• Proprietary software tends to have malicious features. The point is with a proprietary program, when the users dont have the source code, we can never tell. So you must consider every proprietary program as potential malware.

  Richard Stallman

  Program, Source, Software

  24 Copy quote

• I don’t have a problem with someone using their talents to become successful, I just don’t think the highest calling is success. Things like freedom and the expansion of knowledge are beyond success, beyond the personal. Personal success is not wrong, but it is limited in importance, and once you have enough of it it is a shame to keep striving for that, instead of for truth, beauty, or justice.

  Richard Stallman

  Successful, Thinking, Justice

  "Free Software as a Social Movement". ZNet Article, zcomm.org. December 18, 2005.

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• Anything that prevents you from being friendly, a good neighbour, is a terror tactic.

  Richard Stallman

  Friendly, Tactics, Terror

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• For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer. (I also have not net connection much of the time.) To look at page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to me. It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time.

  Richard Stallman

  Running, Real, Use

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• People sometimes ask me if it is a sin in the Church of Emacs to use vi. Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance. So happy hacking.

  Richard Stallman

  People, Church, Use

  "Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software". Book by Sam Williams, Chapter 8, www.oreilly.com. 2002.

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• Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.

  Richard Stallman

  Thinking, Geek

  "O'Reilly Open Source Conference: Day 3". www.apacheweek.com. July 26, 2002.

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• If you want to accomplish something in the world, idealism is not enough - you need to choose a method that works to achieve the goal.

  Richard Stallman

  Goal, Needs, World

  Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.75, Lulu.com

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