Richard Stallman Quotes

To have the choice between proprietary software packages, is being able to choose your master. Freedom means not having a master. And in the area of computing, freedom means not using proprietary software.

The idea of free software is that users of computing deserve freedom. They deserve in particular to have control over their computing. And proprietary software does not allow users to have control of their computing.

WordPress.com is the only service of its kind that not only lets you export your data, but gives you an open source package you can run on pretty much any web host out there to run your own instance of the software. So the freedom is really in your hands.

So many commercial orgs have software where you can come and modify it, but they still control everything. And what's controlled is very clearly what's good for their business, or if they're more progressive, their view of what's good for the Internet.

The only reason [not to use] perl is that some sysadmins don't allow software that they didn't pay for. By all means, let them send me money if it makes them feel better.

You must always remain master of the situation and do what you please. No school tasks, ah, no! no tasks!

With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is that freedom means freedom for everyone. People...ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.

I've never regretted not making Linux shareware: I really don't like the pay for use binary shareware programs.

Linux people do what they do because they hate Microsoft.

I think operating systems work best if they're free and open. Particular applications are more likely to be proprietary.

As the web becomes more and more of a part of our every day lives, it would be a horrible tragedy if it was locked up inside of companies and proprietary software.

I've always lived cheaply. I live like a student, basically. And I like that because it means that money is not telling me what to do. I can do what I think is important for me to do. It freed me to do what seemed worth doing. So make a real effort to avoid getting sucked into all of the expensive lifestyle habits of typical Americans ... because, if you do that, then the people with the money will dictate what you do with your life. You won't be able to do what's really important to you.

Ultimately, what we're striving for is people being allowed to do what they want and not feeling they should or shouldn't do certain things.

The first principle of freedom is the right to go to hell in your own handbasket.

For so I created them free and free they must remain.

Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose.

Freedom does not mean being free of something, but to be free to do something.

Liberty is the essential precondition for achieving virtue... In order to exercise virtue, we need to have the ability to choose freely.

People are free to do whatever they want to do.

How was she to tie herself to a man without permitting him to imprison her? And was there some means of acquiring things without those things possessing her?

The only thing I believe is individual responsibility doesn't mean the government is the answer to ever fear and every problem every individual has. We are the masters of our own destiny.

Political freedom means the absence of coercion of a man by his fellow men.

No community dictates to any individual how to live their lives. You can criticize and you can push but people freely choose.

Democracy is such a framework that everyone has the right to live their lives, fix their goals, their aims, their dreams and the ways to achieve them according to their own choice.

Whatever the issue, let freedom offer us a hundred choices, instead of having government force one answer on everyone.