Eric Schmidt Quotes

Even with censorship, the Internet is a force for change.

The Internet is by the people, for the people.

The hope of Internet anarchists was that repressive governments would have only two options: accept the Internet with its limitless possibilities of spreading information, or restrict Internet access to the ruling elite and turn your back on the 21st century, as North Korea has done.

With the Internet, information is knowledge and knowledge is freedom.

Once a citizen feels he is not powerless, he can aspire for more change. ... First, the Web democratized commerce, and then it democratized media, and now it is democratizing democracy.

The Internet was crucial for our success. It is a great thing. It is a big democracy because people can choose what they like.

The Internet has introduced an enormously accessible and egalitarian platform for creating, sharing and obtaining information on a global scale. As a result, we have new ways to allow people to exercise their human and civil rights.

We like to think of the Internet as a border-busting technology.

The Internet is empowering everybody. It's empowering Democrats. It's empowering dictators. It's empowering criminals. It's empowering people who are doing really wonderful and creative things.

People are talking about the Internet as though it is going to change the world. It's not going to change the world. It's not going to change the way we think, and it's not going to change the way we feel.

There are a lot of people that think the Internet is going to bring information and democracy and pluralism in China just by existing.

I come from the school who thought the Internet could be the great democratising force, that getting rid of the gatekeepers was a positive move.

The notion of the Internet as a force of political and social revolution is not a new one. As far back as the early 1990s, in the early days of the World Wide Web, there were technologists and writers arguing forcefully that the Internet was destined to become the most important tool for cultural change in human history.

My point is, no one can stop the Internet. No one can stop that march. It doesn't mean that it's going to be smooth, though.

In the space of one lifetime, the Internet has opened up opportunities that were previously inconceivable.

The internet, Facebook and Twitter have created mass communications and social spaces that regimes cannot control.

Censorship is saying: 'I'm the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine.' But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word - even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.

It is important to distinguish between the power of the Internet to make the great change it can, and the limits and vulnerabilities of that change without real-time political mobilization deployed globally to protect those who venture out, especially in closed societies, into the heady new vistas it offers.

Much of the civil rights work of this century will entail championing digital rights.

We changed the world many ways with the Internet.

One of the great debates about the Internet is whether it is making people more or less free.

The Internet has brought democracy to so many other things. It's about time the Internet brought democracy to democracy.

The Internet's a big enough place for everybody to be happy.

The Internet is an empowering force for people who are protesting against the abuse of power.

In the next 10 years, I expect at least five billion people worldwide to own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day.