Precise language to reason precisely

"In the end, programs are just mathematics, and you can reason about them mathematically"
-- Gerwin Klein, NICTA, "Universal kernel code to keep computers safe," NewScientist, 28 August 2009.

(Ouch! That hurts! (Parenthetical comment notwithstanding))

(lawyers are whores - they are paid to argue for their client, not for the law)
-- Linus Torvalds in the Linux Kernel Mailing List "Re:GPL V3 and Linux - Dead Copyright Holders".

Holy War Version III

I literally feel that we do not - as software developers - have the moral right to enforce our rules on hardware manufacturers. We are not crusaders, trying to force people to bow to our superior God. We are trying to show others that co-operation and openness works better.
-- Linus Torvalds in the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) "Re: GPL V3 and Linux - Dead Copyright Holders".

Goals in life

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.
-- Richard Stallman in "Free Software as a Social Movement," ZNet, December 18, 2005.

Give me liberty or...

I'm a Liberal, in US terms (not Canadian terms). I'm against fascism.
-- Richard Stallman in "Free Software as a Social Movement," ZNet, December 18, 2005.

(Apparently liberalism is not a global unified thing. See Liberalism at Wikipedia.)

Yin and Yang

People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.
-- Alan Kay, as quoted by Steve Jobs when he introduced the iPhone at MacWorld 2007.