Quotes from 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.

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.

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.

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.

Steadfastness is a noble quality, but unguided by knowledge or humility, it becomes rashness, or obstinacy.

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

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

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

What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book - a key part of our planet's cultural legacy.

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

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

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.

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.

I have developed my most meaningful relationships online. None of them live within driving distance. None of them are about my own age.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

With the death of bin Laden, it's finally time for Congress to bring back the pre-9-11 legal norm, before we decided it was okay to toss out our civil liberties if the 'bad guys' were scary enough.