Aaron Swartz

1986–2013 · American computer programmer and internet-political activist

Topics: life, learning

• 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

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

  — Aaron Swartz

• We won this fight because everyone made themselves the hero of their own story. Everyone took it as their job to save this crucial freedom. They threw themselves into it. They did whatever they could think of to do. They didn’t stop to ask anyone for permission.

  — Aaron Swartz

• Information is power. 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.

  — Aaron Swartz