Authors:
  1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. R
  4. Richard Stallman
  5. Writing

Richard Stallman Quotes about Writing

All Richard Stallman Quotes Community Giving Language Running Writing quotes
I did write some code in Java once, but that was the island in Indonesia.

I did write some code in Java once, but that was the island in Indonesia.

Richard Stallman
Writing, Islands, Java

I could have made money this way, and perhaps amused myself writing code. But I knew that at the end of my career, I would look back on years of building walls to divide people, and feel I had spent my life making the world a worse place.

Richard Stallman
Wall, Writing, Years
Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.14, Lulu.com

GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it away free to everyone who can use it.

Richard Stallman
Writing, Names, Giving
Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.27, Lulu.com

It is hard to write a simple definition of something as varied as hacking, but I think what these activities have in common is playfulness, cleverness, and exploration. Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness. Activities that display playful cleverness have "hack value".

Richard Stallman
Writing, Mean, Simple
"On Hacking". stallman.org. 2002.

Now that corporations dominate society and write the laws, each advance or change in technology is an opening for them to further restrict or mistreat its users.

Richard Stallman
Writing, Technology, Law
"Stallman's Law". www.gnu.org. 2012.

I have met bright students in computer science who have never seen the source code of a large program. They may be good at writing small programs, but they can't begin to learn the different skills of writing large ones if they can't see how others have done it.

Richard Stallman
Writing, Skills, Different
Richard Stallman (2002). “Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman”, p.102, Lulu.com

You know, if you were *really* going to starve, you'd be justified in writing proprietary software.

Richard Stallman
Writing, Justified, Software
Richard M. Stallman's speech "Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation", New York University in New York, New York, www.gnu.org. May 29, 2001.

If in my lifetime the problem of non-free software is solved, I could perhaps relax and write software again. But I might instead try to help deal with the world's larger problems. Standing up to an evil system is exhilarating, and now I have a taste for it.

Richard Stallman
Writing, Evil, Trying
"Thus Spake Stallman". Slashdot Interview, news.slashdot.org. May 1, 2000.

I have not seen anyone assume that all the citizens of New York are guilty of murder, violence, robbery, perjury, or writing proprietary software.

Richard Stallman
New York, Writing, Violence
"MyDoom and You". www.gnu.org. 2004.

Writing non-free software is not an ethically legitimate activity, so if people who do this run into trouble, that's good! All businesses based on non-free software ought to fail, and the sooner the better.

Richard Stallman
Running, Writing, People
Kde-licensing mailing list, marc.info. April 13, 1998.

The principal lesson of Emacs is that a language for extensions should not be a mere "extension language". It should be a real programming language, designed for writing and maintaining substantial programs. Because people will want to do that!

Richard Stallman
Real, Writing, People

You May Also Like: