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.
Aaron SwartzRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the issue of access to scientific knowledge and the monopolization of information by corporations.
Aaron Swartz emphasizes the growing concern over the control of scientific and cultural knowledge by a few powerful entities. He argues that, while the wealth of information has been built over centuries, it is increasingly locked away behind costly paywalls, limiting access for the general public and undermining the very essence of knowledge sharing that drives progress and innovation.
Themes
AccessKnowledgeScienceCorporationsInformationMonopoly
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on open access, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of free knowledge.
More from Aaron Swartz
All quotes →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
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it - their shareholders would revolt at anything less.
Aaron SwartzRead
We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks.
Aaron SwartzRead
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.
Aaron SwartzRead
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.
Aaron SwartzRead
Similar quotes
Physics is an otherworld thing, it requires a taste for things unseen, even unheard of- a high degree of abstraction... These faculties die off somehow when you grow up... profound curiosity happens when children are young. I think physicists are the Peter Pans of the human race... Once you are sophisticated, you know too much- far too much. Pauli once said to me, "I know a great deal. I know too much. I am a quantum ancient.".
Isidor Isaac RabiRead
Theoretical physics is one of the few fields in which being disabled is no handicap - it is all in the mind.
Stephen HawkingRead
In experimental philosophy, propositions gathered from phenomena by induction should be considered either exactly or very nearly true notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses, until yet other phenomena make such propositions either more exact or liable to exceptions.
Isaac NewtonRead
The separation of science and non-science is not only artificial but also detrimental to the advancement of knowledge. If we want to understand nature, if we want to master our physical surroundings, then we must use all ideas, all methods, and not just a small selection of them.
Paul FeyerabendRead
If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist.
Albert EinsteinRead
A great part of its theories derives an additional charm from the peculiarity that important propositions, with the impress of simplicity on them, are often easily discovered by induction, and yet are of so profound a character that we cannot find the demonstrations till after many vain attempts; and even then, when we do succeed, it is often by some tedious and artificial process, while the simple methods may long remain concealed.
Carl Friedrich GaussRead