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Richard Stallman Quotes

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Famous Richard Stallman Quotes

“I don’t have a problem with someone using their talents to become successful, I just don’t think the highest calling is success. Things like freedom and the expansion of knowledge are beyond success, beyond the personal. Personal success is not wrong, but it is limited in importance, and once you have enough of it it is a shame to keep striving for that, instead of for truth, beauty, or justice.”

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Author:Richard Stallman
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“The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it always works this way.”

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Book:Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman
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“EMACS could not have been reached by a process of careful design, because such processes arrive only at goals which are visible at the outset, and whose desirability is established on the bottom line at the outset. Neither I nor anyone else visualized an extensible editor until I had made one, nor appreciated its value until he had experienced it. EMACS exists because I felt free to make individually useful small improvements on a path whose end was not in sight.”

Has BeensMadeEndsValuesFeltProcessGoalLinesLearningPathDesignSightBottomCarefulImprovementVisibleProgrammingEditorsAppreciatedBottom LineDesirability
Author:Richard Stallman
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“If you can find a host for me that has a friendly parrot, I will be very very glad… DON'T buy a parrot figuring that it will be a fun surprise for me. To acquire a parrot is a major decision: it is likely to outlive you. If you don't know how to treat the parrot, it could be emotionally scarred and spend many decades feeling frightened and unhappy. If you buy a captured wild parrot, you will promote a cruel and devastating practice, and the parrot will be emotionally scarred before you get it. Meeting that sad animal is not an agreeable surprise.”

IfsKnowsFeelingsFunDecisionAnimalPracticeKnow HowMajorsTreatsMeetingsSurpriseDecadesGladUnhappyAcquireFriendlyFrightenedHostCapturedParrots
Author:Richard Stallman
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“Every decision a person makes stems from the person's values and goals. People can have many different goals and values; fame, profit, love, survival, fun, and freedom, are just some of the goals that a good person might have. When the goal is to help others as well as oneself, we call that idealism. My work on free software is motivated by an idealistic goal: spreading freedom and cooperation. I want to encourage free software to spread, replacing proprietary software that forbids cooperation, and thus make our society better.”

PeopleWantWellsPersonsDifferentHelpingMightValuesFunGoalDecisionFameSurvivalOneselfProfitSpreadHelping OthersOur SocietyMotivatedCooperationSoftwareStemIdealismGood PersonIdealisticValues And Goals
Book:Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman
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