Tim Berners-Lee Quotes

The critical question is: How do we ensure that the Internet develops in a way that is compatible with democracy?

We're going to get the Internet we deserve, and those people who are the most active in shaping the Internet to their liking are going to win out.

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

I have been a strong supporter of a free and open Internet and have indicated this both prior to and subsequent to being sworn in as chairman of the F.C.C. I believe it is important to take concrete and reasonable steps to protect the freedom of users and entrepreneurs and businesses both small and large on the Internet.

India is at the vanguard of figuring out how to exploit technology and innovation on behalf of democratic accountability.

The Internet is the hope of an integrated world without frontiers, a common world without controlling owners, a world of opportunities and equality. This is a utopia that we have been dreaming about and is a world in which each and every one of us are protagonists of a destiny that we have in our hands.

You know, I believe that technology is the great leveler. Technology permits anybody to play. And in some ways, I think technology - it's not only a great tool for democratization, but it's a great tool for eliminating prejudice and advancing meritocracies.

We must reflect more on what democracy in the exercise of authority would mean. Is truth determined by a majority vote, only for a new 'truth' to be 'discovered' by a new majority tomorrow?

'Canadian society' or the 'Canadian nation' cannot decide anything, because no one is in charge.

An equality of estate will give an equality of power; and an equality of power is a commonwealth, or democracy…

The Internet has become the phenomenon of the new century. It has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America. It stands ready to serve every facet, every faction. It creates neighbors where once we were foreigners. It carries our individual voices to new communities formed through the magic of electronics. The electronic village has been born, and the village voice, via the internet is being heard.

O my friends. How happy we shall be once our dear Land is scourged of the brutish aristocracy…every man will be free to hunt and to fish as he pleases, taxes and dues will be reduced and no longer fall so heavily on the poor. Our country will be ruled by brave Burghers (city dwellers) and farmers through their public voice.

Democracy on a supranational level is simply impossible. In order to have democracy, there needs to be a nation.

Net neutrality is the right thing for our democracy, economy, and global competitiveness. And Americans support an open Internet.

Football is probably the most democratic human activity. It belongs to everyone... to poor and rich, illiterate and educated, to all races, cultures, and nations.

If in a democratic country nothing can be permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people themselves crave.

I think even nation states should be and will be obsolete. I think nationalism will be seen in the future as a form of tribalism and I think what we call "Democracy" will be "Netocracy", where people, globally, can work on issues.

Mass democracy guarantees stupidity. Masses of people, even if they're individually intelligent, can only act stupidly.

One-man-one-vote combined with "free entry" into government-democracy--implies that every person and his personal property comes within reach of-and is up for grabs by-everyone else: a "tragedy of the commons" is created.

France is a republic, and the rules in theory have been made by everyone rather than imposed by a dictatorship or king or whatever. So it's like, we've got to stick to these rules because we made them.

The will of the people is the best law.

We want the government to be controlled by all the people, not by the richest 1%. That's always been the first demand. That's a simple enough message, and I think it's pretty clear now, even though much of the media has been disingenuous in its coverage. We don't want the heads of the biggest industries to make all the decisions, because they're not for the people. They're for the corporations. Power to the people!

I think we need to be a superpower of human rights, of support for true grassroots democracy, not corporatist economic development, which suits our economic elite but has not been helpful to the cause of democracies around the world.

These two great organisations of the English-speaking democracies, the British Empire and the United States, will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some affairs for mutual and general advantage. I do not view the process with any misgivings. I could not stop it if I wished. Let it roll on full flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands, and better days.

We want no dictatorship of physicists, as physicists. If our democracy is to realize its full promise, we want no dictatorship at all - of any species. What we want and need is the enlightened and active interest of all men of intelligence and goodwill in their government, and their participation in its functions.