I think that reality exists and that it's knowable.

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.

I'm a big advocate of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought.

My original concept was to provide a free encyclopedia for every single person in the world.

The goal is to give people a free encyclopedia to every person in the world, in their own language. Not just in a 'free beer' kind of way, but also in the free speech kind of way.

The real struggle is not between the right and the left but between the party of the thoughtful and the party of the jerks.

Most people assume the fights are going to be the left versus the right, but it always is the reasonable versus the jerks.

We are growing from a cheerful small town where everyone waves off their front porch to the subway of New York City where everyone rushes by. How do you preserve the culture that has worked so well?

Love. It isn't very popular in technical circles to say a lot of mushy stuff about love, but frankly it's a very very important part of what holds our project together.

Everybody tells jokes, but we still need comedians.

A lot of people who work on open-source software don't mind making money elsewhere. They aren't anticommercial.

The only place I ever felt at home was with you. There isn’t a place for me anywhere anymore… I’ve been evicted.

Through meditation, difficult thoughts and emotions may well rise up. And through practice, you can meet such emotions with kindness, listen to them, explore them and then really let them go.

Leibniz never married; he had considered it at the age of fifty; but the person he had in mind asked for time to reflect. This gave Leibniz time to reflect, too, and so he never married.

When I was 15 or 16 - I slept really well then. Now I sleep on a bed of anxiety-tipped nails.

AIDS does not inevitably lead to death, especially if you suppress the co-factors that support the disease. It is very important to tell this to people who are infected.

The greatness of man cannot be seen in the hours of comfort and convenience, but rather in moments of conflict/adversity

The sweet reward for preparation often does not come in the youthful twenties or staid thirties. It arrives - with accrued interest - in the mature years.

I don't see how a person can be sensuous - unless they're just, you know, following some kind of script - without being vulnerable.

Whatever baggage you have, use it. Conquer it. Don’t let it stop you.

Successful gardening is not necessarily a question of wealth, it is a question of love, taste, and knowledge.