Without the ability to talk about government power, there's no way for citizens to make sure this power isn't being misused.
Aaron SwartzRead
What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book - a key part of our planet's cultural legacy.
Interpretation
The quote imagines a comprehensive library containing all books, emphasizing the importance of preserving cultural knowledge.
Aaron Swartz's quote invites us to envision a library that encompasses every book ever written, not just the popular or significant ones. This idea highlights the value of all literature as a crucial element of our cultural history, suggesting that every book contributes to our understanding of human experience and knowledge.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of libraries, this quote could be used to inspire the audience to advocate for more funding and resources for libraries.
Without the ability to talk about government power, there's no way for citizens to make sure this power isn't being misused.
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it - their shareholders would revolt at anything less.
We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks.
Think deeply about things. Don’t just go along because that’s the way things are or that’s what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think.
But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.
The best morals kids get from any book is just the capacity to empathize with other people, to care about the characters and their feelings. So you don't have to write a preachy book to do that. You just have to make it a fun book with characters they care about, and they will become better people as a result.
When I was 7, my proudest possession would have been my bookshelf 'cause I had alphabetized all of the books on my bookshelf.
It's a failure of national vision when you regard children as weapons, and talents as materials you can mine, assay, and fabricate for profit and defense.
The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things-the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.
Negative feelings are typical of learning, and you shouldn't feel like you're stupid when you're frustrated doing something. You might say to yourself, 'I can't do this,' but you should say, 'That's great.' That means you really have the potential to learn something there.
The purpose of adult education is to help them to learn, not to teach them all you know and thus stop them from learning.
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