Linus Torvalds Quotes

In America nothing dies easier than tradition.

It is not religion but revolution which is the opium of the people.

I think people look at revolution too much in terms of power. I think revolution has to be seen more anthropologically, in terms of transitions from one mode of life to another.

When cultural change succeeds, it succeeds because it's so embedded in what we do that we don't have to think about.

For me, 'revolution' simply means radical change.

The world is changing very profoundly.

Things need shaking up politically, culturally.

If we glance at the most important revolutions in history, we are at no loss to perceive that the greatest number of these originated in the periodical revolutions of the human mind

Tradition, by its very nature, includes continuous change.

You can't just be a revolutionary for 40 or 50 years. That means compromising.

You cannot just change regimes; you have to change mindsets.

Every time we are confronted with a new revolution we take to the opium pipes of our own propaganda.

Changing a political system is not a question of contesting and polemicizing, but of blowing everything up.

As generations come and go, Their arts, their customs, ebb and flow; Fate, fortune, sweep strong powers away, And feeble, of themselves, decay.

The revolution is now just a sentiment.

I do see myself as aiming to foment some kind of revolution.

Revolutions are not made: they come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak. It comes out of the past. Its foundations are laid far back.

If there had been no troublemakers, no Dissenters, we should still be living in caves.

Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man ... cannot be exempt from the common destiny.

Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind.

This is an inevitable and easily recognizable stage in every revolutionary movement: reformers must expect to be disowned by those who are only too happy to enjoy what has been won for them.

I titled my book "Revolution." And that is exactly what it is. France is experiencing a time of transformation - in education, on the labor market and in the pensions system. We're talking about a cultural revolution.

Revolutions spring not from accident, but from necessity. A revolution is a return from the factitious to the real. It takes place because it must.

I didn't invent the culture, but I didn't try to stop the culture.

The people of Iran have been battling against consecutive conflicts between tradition and modernity for over 100 years... some have tried and are trying to see the world through the eyes of their predecessors and to deal with the problems and difficulties of the existing world by virtue of the values of the ancients... many others...seek to go forth in step with world developments and not lag behind the caravan of civilization, development and progress.