Transparency can be a powerful thing, but not in isolation. So, let’s stop passing the buck by saying our job is just to get the data out there and it’s other people’s job to figure out how to use it. Let’s decide that our job is to fight for good in the world. I’d love to see all these amazing resources go to work on that.

— Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz Quotes

Now that everyone has a license to speak, the question is – who gets heard?

— Aaron Swartz

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

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

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

— Aaron Swartz
Quality Humility Understanding

The adults were completely wrong.

— 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.

— Aaron Swartz

Creativity comes from applying things you learn in other fields to the field you work in.

— Aaron Swartz

Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.

— Aaron Swartz
About Greed

I’m a teenage kid who’s interested in improving the world.

— Aaron Swartz

The law about what is stealing is very clear. Stealing is taking something away from someone so they cannot use it. There’s no way that making a copy of something is stealing under that definition.

— Aaron Swartz

Geeks seem a lot more willing to treat people based on what they can do rather than who they are.

— Aaron Swartz

On the one hand, I want to be very open about everything, On the other, I heavily defend people’s right to privacy.

— Aaron Swartz

The people rose up, and they caused a sea change in Washington.

— Aaron Swartz

Growing up, I slowly had this process of realizing that all the things around me that people had told me were just the natural way things were, the way things always would be, they weren’t natural at all. They were things that could be changed, and they were things that, more importantly, were wrong and should change, and once I realized that, there was really no going back.

— Aaron Swartz

You only get to see your own perspective. And even our mistakes make sense from our perspective – we see all of the context, everything that led up to it. It all makes sense because we saw it happen. When we screw up, it’s for a reason. When other people screw up, it’s because they’re screwups.

— Aaron Swartz

The scary thing is that the more open our markets get, the faster people can move their money around and the more trading is based on this kind of speculation instead of serious analysis. And that’s scary because – recall – the whole point of the stock market is to decide the crucial question of what we, as a society, should build for the future. As Keynes says, “When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done.

— Aaron Swartz

Transparency can be a powerful thing, but not in isolation. So, let’s stop passing the buck by saying our job is just to get the data out there and it’s other people’s job to figure out how to use it. Let’s decide that our job is to fight for good in the world. I’d love to see all these amazing resources go to work on that.

— Aaron Swartz

In other words, instead of providing a place for a group of like-minded people to come together, magazines provide a sampling of what a group of like-minded people might say in such an instance so that you can pretend you’re part of them.

— Aaron Swartz

The director J. D. Walsh says good stories should be like the poster for Transformers. There’s a huge evil robot on the left side of the poster and a huge, big army on the right side of the poster. And in the middle, at the bottom, there’s just a small family trapped in the middle. Big stories need human stakes.

— Aaron Swartz

All censorship should be deplored.

— Aaron Swartz
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