Press Another for a random quote about the internet, computing and programming. The full collection is listed below.
The quotes come from pioneers, engineers and writers, as well as a few well-worn proverbs from developer culture. Where a quote is widely attributed rather than firmly sourced, we say so.
All the quotes
The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
— John GilmoreInformation wants to be free.
— Stewart BrandOn the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.
— a 1993 cartoon captionSoftware is eating the world.
— Marc AndreessenThis is for everyone.
— Tim Berners-Lee, on inventing the webMove fast and break things.
— an early Silicon Valley mottoThe best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.
— Jeff HammerbacherContent is king.
— a phrase that defined the early webA wild appeared.
— the internet, about almost anythingThe internet is the world's largest copy machine.
— Kevin KellyThe Internet runs on love.
— Clay ShirkyInformation is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.
— Aaron SwartzArguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.
— Edward SnowdenTalk is cheap. Show me the code.
— Linus TorvaldsGiven enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.
— Eric S. RaymondImagine a world in which every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.
— Jimmy WalesWeb 2.0 is the move to the Internet as platform.
— Tim O'ReillyA startup is a company designed to grow fast.
— Paul GrahamTechnology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities.
— Sherry TurkleThink free as in free speech, not free as in free beer.
— Richard StallmanComputing is not about computers anymore. It is about living.
— Nicholas NegroponteIf you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.
— Reid HoffmanThe ultimate search engine would understand exactly what you meant and give you back exactly what you wanted.
— Larry PageInformation doesn't want to be free. People do.
— Cory DoctorowNo online database will replace your daily newspaper.
— Clifford Stoll, 1995The Internet is not a big truck. It's a series of tubes.
— Senator Ted Stevens, 2006As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
— Mike Godwin, on "Godwin's Law"What will be scarce is real intelligence and human qualities, like empathy.
— Satya NadellaThe wiki is the simplest online database that could possibly work.
— Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wikiDuring my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.
— Al Gore, 1999It's not a bug, it's a feature.
— a classic programmer's sayingThe Web does not just connect machines, it connects people.
— Tim Berners-LeeTwitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.
— Elon MuskTechnology is everything that doesn't work yet.
— Danny HillisA memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, mechanized so it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.
— Vannevar Bush, 1945I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.
— Robert Metcalfe, 1995The hope is that human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly.
— J.C.R. Licklider, 1960For the first time in history, hits and niches are on equal economic footing.
— Chris Anderson, "The Long Tail"Python is an experiment in how much freedom programmers need.
— Guido van RossumDon't feed the trolls.
— an early Usenet-era sayingIf ease of use was the only requirement, everybody would still be riding tricycles.
— Douglas EngelbartYou have to be somebody before you can share yourself.
— Jaron LanierBroadcast Yourself.
— YouTube's original slogan, 2005The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
— Alan KayThe most dangerous phrase is: "We've always done it this way."
— Grace HopperYou have no sovereignty where we gather.
— John Perry Barlow, "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
— Bill GatesA computer is the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.
— Steve JobsIf privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.
— Phil Zimmermann, creator of PGPThe three chief virtues of a programmer are laziness, impatience, and hubris.
— Larry Wall, creator of PerlThe medium is the message.
— Marshall McLuhanThe Internet is for everyone — but it won't be if we don't work to make it so.
— Vint CerfAnything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
— Douglas AdamsYour margin is my opportunity.
— Jeff BezosThe Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past.
— Tim Berners-LeeAny sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
— Arthur C. ClarkePremature optimization is the root of all evil.
— Donald KnuthPrograms must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.
— Harold Abelson and Gerald SussmanSimplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
— Edsger W. DijkstraWe reject kings, presidents and voting. We believe in rough consensus and running code.
— David Clark, 1992Be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept.
— Jon PostelThere are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation and naming things.
— Phil KarltonNever trust a computer you can't throw out a window.
— Steve WozniakThe real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
— B. F. SkinnerMake it work, make it right, make it fast.
— Kent BeckCode is like humor. When you have to explain it, it's bad.
— Cory HouseThe cloud is just someone else's computer.
— a sysadmin proverbA year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
— Alan PerlisThe Web is more a social creation than a technical one.
— Tim Berners-LeeThe Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand.
— Eric SchmidtStay hungry, stay foolish.
— a farewell on the Whole Earth Catalog, quoted by Steve Jobs
Frequently asked questions
Who is quoted here?
Web pioneers, programmers and computer scientists, including Tim Berners-Lee, Linus Torvalds and Donald Knuth.
Are the attributions certain?
We list the usual attribution. Some quotes are widely attributed but hard to source exactly.
Can I share a quote?
Yes. Use the share button on the homepage version to copy a quote with a link.