Quote

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

Aaron Swartz

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Aaron Swartz
Age: 26 †
Born: 1986
Born: November 8
Died: 2013
Died: January 11
Businessperson
Computer Programmer
Internet Activist
Political Activist
Programmer
Wikimedian
Writer
Highland Park
Illinois
Aaron H. Swartz
AaronSw
Aaron Hillel Swartz
Aaron Hillel George Swartz
Information
Keep
Power
Like

More quotes by Aaron Swartz

Image
Creativity comes from applying things you learn in other fields to the field you work in.
Aaron Swartz
Image
There is no justice in following unjust laws.
Aaron Swartz
Image
As the Internet breaks down the last justifications for a professional class of politicians, it also builds up the tools for replacing them.
Aaron Swartz
Image
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.
Aaron Swartz
Image
No, you can’t force other people to change. You can, however, change just about everything else. And usually, that’s enough.
Aaron Swartz
Image
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
Image
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?
Aaron Swartz
Image
Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Aaron Swartz
Image
Steadfastness is a noble quality, but unguided by knowledge or humility, it becomes rashness, or obstinacy.
Aaron Swartz
Image
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.
Aaron Swartz
Image
I don’t want to be happy. I just want to change the world.
Aaron Swartz
Image
Life is short ... so why waste it doing something dumb?
Aaron Swartz
Image
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.
Aaron Swartz
Image
Now everyone has a license to speak, it’s a question of who gets heard.
Aaron Swartz
Image
The adults were completely wrong.
Aaron Swartz
Image
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.
Aaron Swartz
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
Aaron Swartz
Image
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.
Aaron Swartz