Linus Torvalds Quotes

Mathematicians are like managers - they want improvement without change.

The people who whine about Fox News are hypocrites - they say they're totally tolerant, but when they run into someone who doesn't share their assumptions, they say, 'Fox News is evil, and it must be stopped.'

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

In fact, the individual outlook becomes less and less valuable and more and more harmful unless it is transmitted into the corporate outlook.

You can lead a bureaucrat to water, but you can't make him think.

Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

The Pentagon isn't a place that champions individuality and innovation.

I saw that there are people who will connive against innovation. They're hostile to it. And that has shaped my behavior ever since.

Groupthink can become a serious issue - old ideas stay around after they're useful, and new ideas too often don't get a fair hearing.

The committee will be composed of open-minded people who agree with me.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common

You couldn't advance in a finance department in this country unless you thought that the world was flat.

In an organization that is unwilling to change, find the opportunity to talk and interact with people - figure out why they don't want to change. It could be habits. It could be people's personal equities and reputations are defined by the role they're in or the process they've mastered.

When we judge, we are always in a psychic space which is circular.

I'm interested in institutions, particularly in the way institutions close ranks. They have hierarchies and their own ethics.

You can't teach an old hater new truths.

Where all think alike there is little danger of innovation.

It's very dangerous to pretend to be open-minded when you're the exact opposite. I think feminists are only making it worse by blocking out all other viewpoints but their own, only reading their own propaganda and only associating with each other.

I'm not a fan of the facts. Facts change; my opinion never does.

It's so hard to fight against someone who is stuck in what they believe whether you agree with it or not.

Bigotry is the sacred disease, and self-conceit tells lies.

All autonomous agencies and authorities, sooner or later, turn into self-perpetuating strongholds of conventional thought and practice.

Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.

The paradox of innovation is this: CEO's often complain about lack of innovation, while workers often say leaders are hostile to new ideas.