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"The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have survived even in part."
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"From the port of ideas, not only the most clever ones put out to sea and conquer the world but also the most stupid ones do this!"

"Give people films, they will forget after a few weeks, but give people ideas, they will assimilate them into their consciousness."

"Through your ideas, you open the window of your mind and say a hello to the world."

"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."

"An idea can change your fate in a wonderful way but you must first let the idea to touch your mind and your heart! No closed book can ever be your hero!"

"Many things about our bodies would not seem to us so filthy and obscene if we did not have the idea of nobility in our heads."

"Unless you close your door to other ideas, you will never remain idealess!"

"Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don't take yourself so seriously."
Explore more quotes by Richard Stallman

"If you want to accomplish something in the world, idealism is not enough - you need to choose a method that works to achieve the goal."

"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."

"The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have survived even in part."

"The reason that a good citizen does not use such destructive means to become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become poorer from the mutual destructiveness."

"Control over the use of one's ideas really constitutes control over other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more difficult."

"Value your freedom or you will lose it, teaches history. 'Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn."

"The desire to be rewarded for one's creativity does not justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that creativity."

"Whether gods exist or not, there is no way to get absolute certainty about ethics. Without absolute certainty, what do we do? We do the best we can."

"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."
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