Richard Stallman Quotes & Sayings

My favorite programming languages are Lisp and C. However, since around 1992 I have worked mainly on free software activism, which means I am too busy to do much programming. Around 2008 I stopped doing programming projects. — Richard Stallman

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

The most powerful programming language is Lisp. If you don't know Lisp (or its variant, Scheme), you don't appreciate what a powerful language is. Once you learn Lisp you will see what is missing in most other languages. — Richard Stallman

Facebook is not your friend, it is a surveillance engine. — Richard Stallman

When I launched the development of the GNU system, I explicitly said the purpose of developing this system is so we can use our computers and have freedom, thus if you use some other free system instead but you have freedom, then it's a success. It's not popularity for our code but it's success for our goal. — Richard Stallman

I'm always happy when I'm protesting. — Richard Stallman

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

If in my lifetime the problem of non-free software is solved, I could perhaps relax and write software again. But I might instead try to help deal with the world's larger problems. Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating, and now I have a taste for it. — Richard Stallman

I never imagined that the Free Software Movement would spawn a watered-down alternative, the Open Source Movement, which would become so well-known that people would ask me questions about 'open source' thinking that I work under that banner. — Richard Stallman

Whether gods exist or not, there is no way to get absolute certainty about ethics. Without absolute certainty, what do we do? We do the best we can. — Richard Stallman

A hacker is someone who enjoys playful cleverness - not necessarily with computers. The programmers in the old MIT free software community of the 60s and 70s referred to themselves as hackers. Around 1980, journalists who discovered the hacker community mistakenly took the term to mean "security breaker." — Richard Stallman

Software patents are dangerous to software developers because they impose monopolies on software ideas. — Richard Stallman

While corporations dominate society and write the laws, each advance in technology is an opening for them to further restrict its users. — Richard Stallman

In practice, the copyright system does a bad job of supporting authors, aside from the most popular ones. Other authors' principal interest is to be better known, so sharing their work benefits them as well as readers. — Richard Stallman

There is no system but GNU and Linux is one of it's kernels — Richard Stallman

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

Would a dating service on the net be 'frowned upon' ... ? I hope not. But even if it is, don't let that stop you from notifying me via net mail if you start one. — Richard Stallman

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

The GNU GPL was not designed to be "open source". — Richard Stallman

In the free/libre software movement, we develop software that respects users' freedom, so we and you can escape from software that doesn't. — Richard Stallman

You know, if you were *really* going to starve, you'd be justified in writing proprietary software. — Richard Stallman

The principal lesson of Emacs is that a language for extensions should not be a mere "extension language". It should be a real programming language, designed for writing and maintaining substantial programs. Because people will want to do that! — Richard Stallman

I have met bright students in computer science who have never seen the source code of a large program. They may be good at writing small programs, but they can't begin to learn the different skills of writing large ones if they can't see how others have done it. — Richard Stallman

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

Globalizing a bad thing makes it worse. But globalizing a good thing is usually good. — Richard Stallman

The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. — Richard Stallman

If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict the use of these programs. — Richard Stallman

It is hard to write a simple definition of something as varied as hacking, but I think what these activities have in common is playfulness, cleverness, and exploration. Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness. Activities that display playful cleverness have "hack value". — Richard Stallman

To be able to choose between proprietary software packages is to be able to choose your master. Freedom means not having a master. And in the area of computing, freedom means not using proprietary software. — Richard Stallman

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

Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement. — Richard Stallman

I have not seen anyone assume that all the citizens of New York are guilty of murder, violence, robbery, perjury, or writing proprietary software. — Richard Stallman

The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we've redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. — Richard Stallman

Control over the use of one's ideas really constitutes control over other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more difficult. — Richard Stallman

Prior art is as effective as US soldiers in Iraq: They control the ground they stand on, and nothing more. I used to say Vietnam, but, well, you know ... — Richard Stallman

I could have made money this way, and perhaps amused myself writing code. But I knew that at the end of my career, I would look back on years of building walls to divide people, and feel I had spent my life making the world a worse place. — Richard Stallman

Paying isn't wrong, and being paid isn't wrong. Trampling other people's freedom and community is wrong, so the free software movement aims to put an end to it, at least in the area of software. — Richard Stallman

The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it always works this way. — Richard Stallman

Without absolute certainty, what do we do? We do the best we can. Injustice is happening now; suffering is happening now. We have choices to make now. To insist on absolute certainty before starting to apply ethics to life decisions is a way of choosing to be amoral. — Richard Stallman

Proprietary software tends to have malicious features. The point is with a proprietary program, when the users don't have the source code, we can never tell. So you must consider every proprietary program as potential malware. — Richard Stallman

Talking about freedom, about ethical issues, about responsibilities as well as convenience, is asking people to think about things they might prefer to ignore, such as whether their conduct is ethical. This can trigger discomfort, and some people may simply close their minds to it. It does not follow that we ought to stop talking about these things. — Richard Stallman

If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad ... DON'T buy a parrot figuring that it will be a fun surprise for me. To acquire a parrot is a major decision: it is likely to outlive you. If you don't know how to treat the parrot, it could be emotionally scarred and spend many decades feeling frightened and unhappy. If you buy a captured wild parrot, you will promote a cruel and devastating practice, and the parrot will be emotionally scarred before you get it. Meeting that sad animal is not an agreeable surprise. — Richard Stallman

Proprietary software is an injustice. — Richard Stallman

In the U.S., you even lose legal rights if you store your data in a company's machines instead of your own. The police need to present you with a search warrant to get your data from you; but if they are stored in a company's server, the police can get it without showing you anything. They may not even have to give the company a search warrant. — Richard Stallman

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

If there is a Like button in a page, Facebook knows who visited that page. And it can get IP address of the computer visiting the page even if the person is not a Facebook user. — Richard Stallman

Idiots can be defeated but they never admit it. — Richard Stallman

Facebook mistreats its users. Facebook is not your friend; it is a surveillance engine. For instance, if you browse the Web and you see a 'like' button in some page or some other site that has been displayed from Facebook. Therefore, Facebook knows that your machine visited that page. — Richard Stallman

No person, no idea, and no religion deserves to be illegal to insult, not even the Church of Emacs. — Richard Stallman

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

People get the government their behavior deserves. People deserve better than that. — Richard Stallman

In terms of effect on the world, it's very good that I've lived. And so I guess, if I could go back in time and prevent my birth, I wouldn't do it. But I sure wish I hadn't had so much pain. — Richard Stallman

Facebook collects a lot of data from people and admits it. And it also collects data which isn't admitted. And Google does too. As for Microsoft, I don't know. But I do know that Windows has features that send data about the user. — Richard Stallman

I'm trying to change the way people approach knowledge and information in general. I think that to try to own knowledge, to try to control whether people are allowed to use it, or to try to stop other people from sharing it, is sabotage. — Richard Stallman

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

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

A smartphone is a computer - it's not built using a computer - the job it does is the job of being a computer. So, everything we say about computers, that the software you run should be free - you should insist on that - applies to smart phones just the same. And likewise to those tablets. — Richard Stallman

Snow is so beautiful, it doesn't have to be useful. — Richard Stallman

Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society is free to use the results. — Richard Stallman

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

The Adobe flash plug-in is non-free software, and people should not install it, or suggest installing it, or even tell people it exists. — Richard Stallman

Giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance. — Richard Stallman

I'm the last survivor of a dead culture. And I don't really belong in the world anymore. And in some ways I feel I ought to be dead. — Richard Stallman

Officially, MPAA stands for Motion Picture Association of America, but I suggest that MPAA stands for Malicious Power Attacking All. — Richard Stallman

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

EMACS could not have been reached by a process of careful design, because such processes arrive only at goals which are visible at the outset, and whose desirability is established on the bottom line at the outset. Neither I nor anyone else visualized an extensible editor until I had made one, nor appreciated its value until he had experienced it. EMACS exists because I felt free to make individually useful small improvements on a path whose end was not in sight. — Richard Stallman

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

Programming is not a science. Programming is a craft. — Richard Stallman

The reason that a good citizen does not use such destructive means to become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become poorer from the mutual destructiveness. — Richard Stallman

Today many people are switching to free software for purely practical reasons. That is good, as far as it goes, but that isn't all we need to do! Attracting users to free software is not the whole job, just the first step. — Richard Stallman

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

If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software. — Richard Stallman

Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system software free, just like air. — Richard Stallman

Android is a major step towards an ethical, user-controlled, free-software portable phone, but there is a long way to go. — Richard Stallman

A commune is where people join together to share their lack of wealth. — Richard Stallman

CD stores have the disadvantage of an expensive inventory, but digital bookshops would need no such thing: they could write copies at the time of sale on to memory sticks, and sell you one if you forgot your own. — Richard Stallman

I suppose many people will continue moving towards careless computing, because there's a sucker born every minute. — Richard Stallman

Android is very different from the GNU/Linux operating system because it contains very little of GNU. Indeed, just about the only component in common between Android and GNU/Linux is Linux, the kernel. — Richard Stallman

If ebooks mean that readers' freedom must either increase or decrease, we must demand the increase. — Richard Stallman

We need to teach people to refuse to install non-free plug-ins; we need to teach people to care more about their long-term interest of freedom than their immediate desire to view a particular site. — Richard Stallman

Many users of the GNU/Linux system will not have heard the ideas of free software. They will not be aware that we have ideas, that a system exists because of ethical ideals, which were omitted from ideas associated with the term 'open source.' — Richard Stallman

I consider that the Golden Rule requires that if I like a program I must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way. — Richard Stallman

Sharing is good, and with digital technology, sharing is easy. — Richard Stallman

Proprietary software keeps users divided and helpless. Divided because each user is forbidden to redistribute it to others, and helpless because the users can't change it since they don't have the source code. They can't study what it really does. So the proprietary program is a system of unjust power. — Richard Stallman

In essence, Chrome OS is the GNU/Linux operating system. However, it is delivered without the usual applications, and rigged up to impede and discourage installing applications. — Richard Stallman

One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control. — Richard Stallman

People said I should accept the world. Bullshit! I don't accept the world. — Richard Stallman

Writing non-free software is not an ethically legitimate activity, so if people who do this run into trouble, that's good! All businesses based on non-free software ought to fail, and the sooner the better. — Richard Stallman

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

Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free. — Richard Stallman

So, make a real effort to avoid getting sucked into all the expensive lifestyle habits of typical Americans. Because if you do that, then people with the money will dictate what you do with your life. — Richard Stallman

Laws that oppress people have no moral authority — Richard Stallman

GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it away free to everyone who can use it. — Richard Stallman

It's clear that other problems such as [ ... ] the domination of business over government, science, thought, and society, are much bigger than non-free software. — Richard Stallman

With software there are only two possibilites: either the users control the programme or the programme controls the users. If the programme controls the users, and the developer controls the programme, then the programme is an instrument of unjust power. — Richard Stallman

I figure that since proprietary software developers use copyright to stop us from sharing, we cooperators can use copyright to give other cooperators an advantage of their own: they can use our code. — Richard Stallman

With paper printed books, you have certain freedoms. You can acquire the book anonymously by paying cash, which is the way I always buy books. I never use a credit card. I don't identify to any database when I buy books. Amazon takes away that freedom. — Richard Stallman

Fighting patents one by one will never eliminate the danger of software patents, any more than swatting mosquitoes will eliminate malaria. — Richard Stallman

All governments should be pressured to correct their abuses of human rights. — Richard Stallman

It doesn't take special talents to reproduce
even plants can do it. On the other hand, contributing to a program like Emacs takes real skill. That is really something to be proud of. It helps more people, too. — Richard Stallman