Quotes about internet (421 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

“The provision of education has to be congruent with the pace of the changing world. This era - the era of globalization where all sources of information can be accessed within a few seconds through Internet and World-Wide-Web linkages, we inevitably have to take a further step beyond literacy level.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education helps reduce social problems and improves quality of life

World , Education , Change

“I have very mixed feelings about [Napster]. On one hand, I'm concerned that the rampant downloading of my copyright-protected material over the Internet is severely eating into my album sales and having a decidedly adverse effect on my career. On the other hand, I can get all the Metallica songs I want for FREE! WOW!!!!!”

"Weird Al" Yankovic (1959) American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist

Ask Al Archives: May 2000 http://www.weirdal.com/aaarchive.htm#0500.

Feeling

“Most people depend on the internet and cellphones to survive, but what happens when they stop working? I wanted to create a mother and child who wouldn't be defeated by life without them.”

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka

(2009) Independent News article 2009 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/hayao-miyazaki-modern-movies-are-too-weird-for-me-1678129.html
On Ponyo

Life , People , Dependency

“Before you marry a person you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to see who they really are.”

Will Ferrell (1967) American actor, writer, and comedian

Personality , Funny , love , Happy

“We're already taking back the Internet. With your help, we can take back the world.”

Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur

World , Help

“the Internet is the technological basis for the organizational form of the Information Age: the network.”

Manuel Castells (1942) Spanish sociologist (b.1942)

Opening, The Network is the Message, p. 1
The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001)

Age

“The industry, It's at a crossroad, There's a transformation going on. People are confused, what's going on, how to distribute and sell music. The internet kinda threw everybody for a real loop. 'Cause it's so powerful, kids love it so much. The whole world is at their fingertips, on their lap. Anything they want to know, anyone they want to communicate with, any music, any movies… The thing is it just took everybody for a loop. Right now, all these Starbucks deals and Wal-Mart deals, direct to artists, I don't know if that's the answer. I think the answer is just phenomenal, great music. Just reaching the masses. I think people are still searching. There's not a real music revolution going on right now, either. But when it's there, people will break down a wall to get to it. I mean, 'cause before Thriller, it was the same kind of thing. People were not buying music. It helped to bring everybody back into the stores, so when it happens, it happens.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

On musical influences
Ebony interview (2007)

Love , People , World , Music

“Without the Internet I would have no fans and I wouldn’t be in this business. I owe everything to the Internet and my fans.”

Justin Bieber (1994) Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor

Vibe "Justin Bieber on Photo Shoots, Puberty, 2Pac & Drake" http://www.vibe.com/article/justin-bieber-photo-shoots-puberty-2pac-drake, 22 July 2010

Business

“There are a lot of people, a lot of powerful people, who want to clamp down on the Internet. And to be honest, there aren’t a whole lot who have a vested interest in protecting it from all of that.”

Aaron Swartz (1986–2013) computer programmer and internet-political activist

Freedom to Connect speech (2012)
Context: The people rose up, and they caused a sea change in Washington — not the press, which refused to cover the story — just coincidentally, their parent companies all happened to be lobbying for the bill; not the politicians, who were pretty much unanimously in favor of it; and not the companies, who had all but given up trying to stop it and decided it was inevitable. It was really stopped by the people, the people themselves. They killed the bill dead, so dead that when members of Congress propose something now that even touches the Internet, they have to give a long speech beforehand about how it is definitely not like SOPA; so dead that when you ask congressional staffers about it, they groan and shake their heads like it’s all a bad dream they’re trying really hard to forget; so dead that it’s kind of hard to believe this story, hard to remember how close it all came to actually passing, hard to remember how this could have gone any other way. But it wasn’t a dream or a nightmare; it was all very real.
And it will happen again. Sure, it will have yet another name, and maybe a different excuse, and probably do its damage in a different way. But make no mistake: The enemies of the freedom to connect have not disappeared. The fire in those politicians’ eyes hasn’t been put out. There are a lot of people, a lot of powerful people, who want to clamp down on the Internet. And to be honest, there aren’t a whole lot who have a vested interest in protecting it from all of that. Even some of the biggest companies, some of the biggest Internet companies, to put it frankly, would benefit from a world in which their little competitors could get censored. We can’t let that happen.

People

“But every penny they borrowed or made from China has really come as a result of how this nation sacrificed everybody’s rights. With globalization and the Internet, we all know it.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

interview in Newsweek, 21 November 2011.
2010-, 2011
Context: Today, the West feels very shy about human rights and the political situation. They’re in need of money. But every penny they borrowed or made from China has really come as a result of how this nation sacrificed everybody’s rights. With globalization and the Internet, we all know it. Don’t pretend you don’t know it. The Western politicians—shame on them if they say they’re not responsible for this. It’s getting worse, and it will keep getting worse.

“In today’s time, when the content on internet is so powerful, web series will be any actor’s preferred choice. In fact, so many artistes from the Bollywood industry are making their own home production and the participating in them. But I wouldn’t neglect TV either, because these series help an actor grow and evolve. Bollywood is the cream on top and is on everyone’s radar, but it depends on when you get it.”

Sukirti Kandpal (1987) Indian actress

On working in webseries https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/sukriti-kandpal-except-for-supernatural-and-naagin-shows-i-dont-think-much-has-changed-on-tv/articleshow/70315084.cms/

Home , Time , Dependency , Help

“It is very good that Wikipedia also gives a page to "Internet Meme". Internet memes are arguably the most important subset of memes today”

Richard Dawkins book The Selfish Gene

https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/276449081746915328 (5 December 2012)
Twitter
Source: The Selfish Gene

“I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet.”

Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) Polish science fiction author

World

“I really didn't foresee the Internet. But then, neither did the computer industry. Not that that tells us very much of course--the computer industry didn't even foresee that the century was going to end.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

“There is so much noise on the Internet, with would-be prophets daily haranguing their audience and megalomaniacs trying to push bizarre ideas, that eventually people will cherish a new commodity: wisdom.”

Michio Kaku book Physics of the Future

Source: Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

Wisdom , People , Idea

“The Internet, in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity, this is something truly good, a gift from God.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

As quoted in "Pope: The Internet is a 'gift from God.' But watch out for the trolls." at CNN (23 January 2014) http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/23/the-pope-takes-on-internet-trolls/
2010s, 2014

God

“The Internet has given atheists, agnostics, skeptics, the people who like to destroy everything that you and I believe, the almost equal access to your kids as your youth pastor and you have… whether you like it or not.”

Josh McDowell (1939) American writer

People , Youth

“The face of globalisation is contradictory. The internet and television can bring knowledge and information, but also offensive sexuality and mindless violence into the home. Trade can bring new wealth and opportunities, but also huge disruptions and change to communities. In all nations - including America - this change can bring fear. Fear that because of modernity we will lose of control over our economic choices, our politics, and most importantly our identities - those things we most cherish about our communities, our families, our traditions, and our faith. But I also know that human progress cannot be denied. There need not be contradictions between development and tradition.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2009, A New Beginning (June 2009)

Fear , Family , Faith , Home

“More broadly, I think that the -- if you look at some of the most successful countries in the world, they’re actually pretty small countries -- like Singapore, for example -- that on paper look like they have no assets, and yet, if you go to Singapore, it has one of the highest standards of living in the world. What is it that Singapore did that might be replicable? Well, one of the most important things they did was they made an enormous investment in their people. And if you’ve got a highly skilled, highly educated workforce, if you’ve set up rules of law and governance that are transparent and non-corrupt, then you can attract actually a lot of service industries to supplement the tourist industry, because people would want to locate in your country. You could envision people wanting to operate and have offices there where you’ve got a trained workforce. And these days, so many businesses are operating over the Internet that if you’ve got a really skilled workforce that provides value added, you will attract companies and you’ll attract businesses.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2015, Town Hall meeting with Young Leaders of the Americas (April 2015)

People , World , Education , Law

“Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

This quote is frequently purposefully misattributed to Lincoln or others long dead before the age of the internet in order to emphasize its point using humour; not all such attributions, or other claims, found on the Internet are as obviously flawed. " "Cite and sound: the pleasures and pitfalls of quoting people", by Tom Calverley, The Guardian (14 October 2014) http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2014/oct/14/mind-your-language-quotations
Variations:
Don't believe everything you read online.
Don't trust everything you see on the Internet.
Everything you read on the Internet is true.
The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you never know whether or not they're genuine.
Misattributed

Reading

“On the internet nobody can hear you being subtle.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

<nowiki>Linus Torvalds' Best Quotes from LinuxCon Europe 2014</nowiki>, Clark, Libby, 2014-10-18, 2014-10-18 http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/200-libby-clark/791788-linus-torvalds-best-quotes-from-linuxcon-europe-2014,
2010s, 2014

“And in fact, at every moment of economic change throughout our history, this country has taken bold action to adapt to new circumstances and to make sure everyone gets a fair shot. We set up worker protections, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid to protect ourselves from the harshest adversity. We gave our citizens schools and colleges, infrastructure and the Internet -- tools they needed to go as far as their effort and their dreams will take them. That’s what middle-class economics is -- the idea that this country does best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair share, everyone plays by the same set of rules. We don’t just want everyone to share in America’s success, we want everyone to contribute to our success.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2015, State of the Union Address (January 2015)

School , Dreams , History , Idea

“I don't like to cast aspersions on the fans because I know you mean well, but what I have found is that ninety-nine percent of the Jar Jar Binks haters are failures at life. In essence, these haters are taking out their frustrations on Jar Jar. I don't mean to be cruel, but we need to examine the facts. The most popular Star Wars collectibles are all Jar Jar-related. Now, the failures at life who have no money, no women, and no future will spend all day on the Internet talking about how they hate Jar Jar Binks. This is very sad. The Phantom Menace is one of the top five films of all time.”

George Lucas (1944) American film producer

The George Lucas Interviews at SuperShadow.com (27 June 2005) http://web.archive.org/web/20050630002609/http://www.supershadow.com:80/starwars/lucas/

Life , Women , Money , Hate

“The Internet doesn’t just offer opportunities for misogynistic abuse, you know. Penis enlargers can also be bought discreetly.”

Joanne K. Rowling (1965) British novelist, author of the Harry Potter series

8 May 2015 tweet, according to Hollywood Reporter http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jk-rowling-burns-twitter-troll-794521
2010s

“I'm not russian! just wanted to drop in and say hi. also, I wanted to clear up the fact that i'm not half Russian. I don't know where people get their facts (probably on the internet, where rumor might as well be fact, hahaha). But I'm half japanese and half…american, I guess. my mom's family is a mix of a ton of different things. a lot of it is European, and there's a little native American in there. But that side of my family has been in the US forever, so i just call it American to keep it simple.”

Mike Shinoda (1977) American musician

Fort Minor MySpace Blog, 4/17/2006

People , Family , Moms

“Here's the thing. I always hear that whole 'metal is dead' crap. The truth of the matter is that when we started the Ozzfest, media-wise, yes, metal was dead. But as far as the kids went, it was still huge. It was just that radio and MTV decided it wasn't in vogue with what they wanted to do at the time, so the average person didn't hear too much about it. That's why when it comes to picking the new acts each summer, we have people out there on the internet and in the clubs looking for good music and finding bands that people are excited about. I want to know what the kids are into, because I don't trust the industry.”

Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter

Guitar World Issue 37, 2000.

People , Truth , Music , Time

“How does America find its way in this new, global economy? What will our place in history be? Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice. Once again, there are those who believe that there isn’t much we can do about this as a nation. That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government—divvy it up by individual portions, in the form of tax breaks, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, their own education, and so on. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it—Social Darwinism—every man or woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say that those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford—tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job—life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child who was born into poverty—pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we’re the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won’t be the chump who Donald Trump says: “You’re fired!” But there is a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it’s been government research and investment that made the railways possible and the internet possible. It’s been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools that allowed us all to prosper. Our economic dependence depended on individual initiative. It depended on a belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity. That’s what’s produced our unrivaled political stability.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Knox College Commencement Address (4 June 2005)
2005

Life , Health , Education , School

“Why have the majority of overseas Internet companies failed? Google fails, Yahoo failed, eBay and the like were all squashed to death by the locals? Is it because none are able to succeed in China? For every loser, excuses are abound, humans always try to search for excuses to justify failing, and tend not to search for direction towards success.”

Jack Ma (1964) Chinese businessman

马云调侃谷歌退出：中国将制定未来游戏规则 http://china.ibtimes.com/articles/20100120/-2014431602.htm

Death , Search , Success

“The important thing about mobile is, everybody has a computer in their pocket. The implications of so many people connected to the Internet all the time from the standpoint of education is incredible.”

Ben Horowitz (1966) American businessman

Ben Horowitz in: Maria Bartiromo, " Maria Bartiromo interviews tech investor Ben Horowitz http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/bartiromo/story/2012-02-19/maria-bartiromo-ben-horowitz-internet/53156192/1," for USA TODAY, 2/20/2012.

People , Education , Time

“[After some time] I found that I understood a lot more about Parisians' attitude to work. Workdays became a mild irritant inserted between weekends. Friday afternoons were little more than a short period after lunch during which you checked the internet for traffic jams on the routes out of town.”

Stephen Clarke book A Year in the Merde

On Parisians' attitude to work
A Year in the Merde (2005)

Time

“There are some people who imagine that older adults don't know how to use the internet. My immediate reaction is, "I've got news for you, we invented it."”

Vint Cerf (1943) American computer scientist

Source: "Your Life: Vinton Cerf" (2016), p. 30

People , Imagination

“You know, the Internets made us more aware of what people think about us. (3RRR radio 2000)”

Robert Smith (musician) (1959) English singer, songwriter and musician

People , Thinking

“I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet — or unrestricted Internet access is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged. Now, I should tell you, I should be honest, as President of the United States, there are times where I wish information didn't flow so freely because then I wouldn't have to listen to people criticizing me all the time. I think people naturally are — when they're in positions of power sometimes thinks, oh, how could that person say that about me, or that's irresponsible, or — but the truth is that because in the United States information is free, and I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me, I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear. It forces me to examine what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis to see, am I really doing the very best that I could be doing for the people of the United States. And I think the Internet has become an even more powerful tool for that kind of citizen participation.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Interview in Shanghai, as quoted in China Daily (17 November 2009)
2009, Town Hall meeting in Shanghai (November 2009)

People , Truth , Democracy , Nature

“As the nation that developed the Internet, the world expects us to ensure that the digital revolution works as a tool for individual empowerment, not government control. Having faced down the dangers of totalitarianism and fascism and communism, the world expects us to stand up for the principle that every person has the right to think and write and form relationships freely -- because individual freedom is the wellspring of human progress.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2014, Review of Signals Intelligence Speech (June 2014)

World , Communication , Thinking , Freedom

“To judge from the Internet postings that people have sent me, probably most of what you learned [about me] was nonsense.”

Theodore Kaczynski (1942) American domestic terrorist, mathematician and anarchist

Letter to J. N.
The Road to Revolution (2008)

People , Learning

“Well, first of all, let me say that I have never used Twitter. I noticed that young people — they're very busy with all these electronics. My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone. But I am a big believer in technology and I'm a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves. That generates new ideas. It encourages creativity. And so I've always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I'm a big supporter of non-censorship.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Interview in Shanghai, as quoted in [http://learning.sohu.com/20091118/n268291186.shtml China Daily (17 November 2009)
2009, Town Hall meeting in Shanghai (November 2009)

People , World , Idea , Business

“There is nothing that is truly free nor democratic enough. Make no mistake, the internet did not come to save the world.”

José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature

Interview with "O Globo", July 2009.

World

“Can we be honest for a moment. You didn't have a good Christmas, did you? Your turkey was too dry, your kids spent all day glued to their internets, and you didn't bother watching the Big Christmas Film because you've owned it for years on DVD. What you should have had to liven things up was my mother. She arrived at my house with a steely resolve that the Christmas holidays would be exactly like the Christmas holidays she enjoyed when she was a child. Only without the diphtheria or the bombing raids.”

Jeremy Clarkson (1960) English broadcaster, journalist and writer

Source: For Crying Out Loud! The World According to Clarkson Volume Three (2008), p. 1

Holiday , Christmas , Housing

“Thanks to the Internet, words can travel at the speed of light, and no amount of censorship can stop the flow of information. … Thanks to Malala’s courage, no militant can silence her. Thanks to the Internet, the pen is mightier than the sword.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

Facebook Nation: Total Information Awareness (2nd Edition), 2014

Travel , Courage , Light , Silence

“We can find people on the internet who agree with our ideas, no matter how crazy. Democracies do not work if we are not operating on some level based on reason and fact and logic - and not just passion. We're going to have to”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Speaking after receiving a German media prize award in Baden-Baden, Germany on May 25, 2017. Source: Kirschbaum, Erik (25 May 2017). " In Berlin, Obama speaks out against hiding behind walls https://web.archive.org/web/20170527213811/http://www.nasdaq.com/article/in-berlin-obama-speaks-out-against-hiding-behind-walls-20170525-01010". Reuters via nasdaq.com. Archived from the original http://www.nasdaq.com/article/in-berlin-obama-speaks-out-against-hiding-behind-walls-20170525-01010 on 27 May 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
2017
Context: We can find people on the internet who agree with our ideas, no matter how crazy. Democracies do not work if we are not operating on some level based on reason and fact and logic - and not just passion. We're going to have to find ways to push back on propaganda and listen to those we don't agree with.

People , Democracy , Idea , Passion

“We support freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, a free and open Internet, strong civil societies, because the voices of the people must be heard and leaders must be held accountable -- even though it’s uncomfortable sometimes. […] We support strong institutions and independent judiciaries and open government, because the rule of force must give way to the rule of law.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2014, Queensland University Address (November 2014)
Context: America supports free and fair elections, because citizens must be free to choose their own leaders -- as in Thailand where we are urging a quick return to inclusive, civilian rule. We support freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, a free and open Internet, strong civil societies, because the voices of the people must be heard and leaders must be held accountable -- even though it’s uncomfortable sometimes. [... ] We support strong institutions and independent judiciaries and open government, because the rule of force must give way to the rule of law. And in that same fashion, the United States will continue to stand up for the inherent dignity of every human being. Now, dignity begins with the most basic of needs -- a life free of hunger and disease and want.

People , Law , Way , Support

“This is an aesthetic century. In history, there are ages of reason and ages of spectacle, and it’s important to know which you’re in. Our America, our internet, is not ancient Athens - it’s Rome. And your problem is you think you’re in the forum, when you’re really in the circus.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints
Source: The Aesthetic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1afqR5QkDM, published 2018-09-19

Problem , History , Thinking , Age

“Some of you may be aware our gun laws in the United States don’t make much sense. Anybody can buy any weapon any time — without much if any regulation, they can buy it over the Internet, they can buy machine gun.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Comments at VTEX Day digital convention in Sao Paulo, Brazil (30 May 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shx-sXngQUI&t=2182s; also quoted in "Obama tells Brazil: In America ‘anybody can buy any weapon any time", Washington Examiner (31 May 2019)
2019

Sense , Time , Law , Making love

“I was fortunate in that I was pre-Internet with much of my misbehavior, but I think I always had a bit of a moral psychology and I always wanted to kinda do the right thing, which doesn’t count for much, and then I kinda took it on the chin.”

Robert Downey Jr. (1965) American actor

Source: "‘Colbert’: Robert Downey Jr. Grateful His “Misbehavior” Years Were Pre-Internet" https://deadline.com/2021/02/robert-downey-jr-stephen-colbert-late-show-avengers-misbehavior-years-were-pre-internet-1234689537/ (8 February 2021)

Thinking

“I did Google him, you know."
"Oh, so you GOOGLED him Oh, well, that changes everything then, doesn't it? What could I possibly worry about now that I know you've conducted such a thorough Internet search?”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Fated

Search , Change

“The Internet is a big distraction. It's distracting, it's meaningless; it's not real. It's in the air somewhere.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

“Librarians! Librarians always know how to find out things. That was their job even before the Internet.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer (1948) American writer

Source: This World We Live In

“Internet porn makes everything more reasonable -- once you've realized there is a massive subculture of upwardly mobile people who think it's erotic to see an Asian woman giving a hand job to a javelina, nothing else in the world seems crazy.”

Chuck Klosterman (1972) Author, Columnist

People , World , Thinking

“Annabeth came up to me. She was dressed in black camouflage with her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder—ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“TV and the Internet are good because they keep stupid people from spending too much time out in public.”

Douglas Coupland book JPod

Source: JPod (2006)

People , Stupidity , Time

“That's what's so great about the Internet. It allows pompous blow-hards to connect with other pompous blow-hards in a vast circle-jerk of pomposity.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Jerk

“Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be—or to be indistinguishable from—self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.”

Neal Stephenson book Cryptonomicon

Source: Cryptonomicon

Game , Time

“hermes has threatened me with slow mail. lousy Internet service and a horrible stock market if i publish this story. I hope he is just bluffing.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Source: The Demigod Diaries

Hope

“Every good writer I know needs to go into some deep, quiet place to do work that is fully imagined. And what the Internet brings is lots of vulgar data. It is the antithesis of the imagination. It leaves nothing to the imagination.”

Jonathan Franzen (1959) novelist

Imagination

“The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Wired interview http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/stewart.html?pg=2&topic=stewart&topic_set=, September 13, 2005
Context: The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom. That's all it is. All those media companies say, "We're going to make a killing here." You won't because it's still only as good as the content.

Funny , World

“There's a serendipity to real life that the Internet can't duplicate. Do you use the library? For anything? Well, sometimes you end up picking up the book next to the one you were looking for, and it's that book that changes your life.”

Laura Lippman (1959) Detective fiction writer

Source: Hardly Knew Her

Life , Books , Change

“When you beat up someone physically, you get excercise and stress relief; when you assault him verbally on the Internet, you just harm yourself.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

“Back in the time when life was easy, the Internet would have told me what I needed to know. The great thing about the Internet was it didn't care why you were asking.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer (1948) American writer

Source: This World We Live In

Life , Time

“Damn, I miss the internet. You could always find people doing stupid stuff on the internet.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: Calamity

People , Stupidity

“I am charging you with the protection of my mother and friends, not to mention keeping my younger self off the Internet. He is as dangerous as Opal.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Time Paradox

“It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.”

Jonathan Franzen (1959) novelist

“Internet users, that blue screen of death you were looking at this morning? That's the sky. If you're still confused, look it up on Wikipedia tomorrow.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Death

“Texting, even browsing the Internet - all these things can attract monsters.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“Library-denigrators, pay heed: suggesting that the Internet is a viable substitute for libraries is like saying porn could replace your wife.”

Joanne Harris (1964) British author

“I'm not an angel, Jace," she repeated. "I don't return library books. I steal illegal music off the internet. I lie to my mom. I am.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Lie , Books , Music , Angels

“That's the thing about the internet. It's really good at giving you pointless facts like how many horses a star owns, but not important things like how to invade his trailer.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: Just One Wish

Star , Horse

“I looked back, but Bast and Sadie seemed fine. They were still staring at the water as if it were some amazing Internet video.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Water

“Excuse me? You're a lady?"
"I bought a title on the Internet. I own one square inch of Scotland. And you're changing the subject.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Change

“Actually, watching television and surfing the Internet are really excellent practice for being dead.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Damned

Source: Damned (2011)
Context: If you can watch much television, then being dead will be a cinch. Actually, watching television and surfing the Internet are really excellent practice for being dead.

Dead

“The Internet is for lonely people. People should live.”

Charlton Heston (1923–2008) American actor

People

“My main inspiration is sardonic British TV critics like Charlie Brooker, whose excellent show Screenwipe is fully on Youtube, and I recommend everyone watch it. He used to write for a PC magazine I read fanatically as a child. My own style is a mixture of him, possibly Douglas Adams, and internet writers like Seanbaby, Old Man Murray, or Something Awful. I’m such a rip-off.”

Ben Croshaw (1983) English video game journalist

http://www.geek.com/interview-zero-punctuations-yahtzee/
Other Articles

Reading

“Millennials who supported Bernie Sanders almost certainly don’t care about the weedy specifics of his health-care plans. They do not want to live in a country with an economic system that could never have produced the iPhone or the Internet. What they want is a greater sense of social solidarity.”

Jonah Goldberg (1969) American political writer and pundit

2010s, 2018, Socialism is So Hot Right Now (2018)

Health , Support , Sense , Country

“The Internet is the modern form of knitting. In the old days women who had nothing to do would knit, but at least you got something out of it — a pair of socks, maybe a scarf, occasionally a little bedspread. That’s mostly what the Internet is, just passing the time. But unfortunately you are dealing with words that can have meaning.”

Tom Wolfe (1930–2018) American author and journalist

American Spectator interview (2005)

Women , Time

“We don't believe it's possible to protect digital content … What's new is this amazingly efficient distribution system for stolen property called the Internet — and no one's gonna shut down the Internet. And it only takes one stolen copy to be on the Internet. And the way we expressed it to them is: Pick one lock — open every door. It only takes one person to pick a lock. Worst case: Somebody just takes the analog outputs of their CD player and rerecords it — puts it on the Internet. You'll never stop that. So what you have to do is compete with it.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

As quoted in "Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview" in Rolling Stone (3 December 2003) http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/5939600
2000s

Way , Personality

“Internet use enhanced sociability both at a distance and in the local community.”

Manuel Castells (1942) Spanish sociologist (b.1942)

Source: The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001), Chapter 4, Virtual Communities or Network Society?, p. 122

Communication

“I like to be involved in things that change the world. The Internet did, and space will probably be more responsible for changing the world than anything else. If humanity can expand beyond the Earth, obviously that's where the future is.”

Elon Musk (1971) South African-born American entrepreneur

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)

World , Change , Future

“The quest to rationally prove the possibility of sentience in a computer (or perhaps in the Internet) is the modern version of proving God's existence. …eventually a cybernetically minded twenty-first century version of Kant will appear in order to present a tedious "proof" that such adventures are futile.”

Jaron Lanier (1960) American computer scientist, musician, and author

"One Half of a Manifesto," The New Humanists: Science at the Edge (2003)

God , Appearance

“I like the fact that I'm involved in a career that gives me so many different mediums to perform in. The entertainment industry in the last 10 years has been so fragmented, from scripted programming to reality. There's work not just on TV and in film, but you know, on your cell phone, on the Internet. There's so many [venues] now, and each of them looking for quality content, that, you know, I'm just going with the flow. And I'm having fun with every wave.”

Ian Ziering (1964) American actor

'Sharknado's' Ian Ziering: 'Maybe This Is My Pulp Fiction Moment' http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sharknados-ian-ziering-maybe-is-my-pulp-fiction-moment-584659 (July 12, 2013)

Reality

“Oh, hello," Dr. M says, shaking Balder's hand. "Wonderful costume. I'm a bit of a role player myself on the weekends. Tell me, where did you get the helmet?"
"It was forged in the North, blessed by the hands of Odin, given to me by my mother, Frigg," Balder answers.
"Lovely. I got mine on the Internet.”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine (2009), p. 318

Love

“We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the internet, where information is still freely available. For the rest, if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial - whatever our special services, Putin's guard dogs, see fit.”

Anna Politkovskaya (1958–2006) Russian journalist

As quoted in " Poisoned by Putin: The horror of Beslan was made still worse by the intimidation of Russia's servile media http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/09/russia.media" (9 September 2004), The Guardian, Guardian News and Media Limited.

Death , Dogs

“This moment in time will be remembered for three things: the war against terror, sure; the Internet, probably; and how we let an entire continent, Africa, burst into flames and stood around with water in cans.”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

CNN Larry King Weekend (2002)

War , Water , Time

“Together, us gamers are strong. For too long we have been oppressed by all these groups; everyone is against us, but we are the toughest, most hard-working, most vigilant, most powerful group on the Internet! If we all together will rise up, we can defeat anything! We can take over the world! We can create the gaming utopia that we all wanted to live in! Cars are not cars - they are carmers; houses are not houses - they are gaming studios; roads are not roads - they are Candy Crush displays. Imagine it, just think of how good things would really be! Think about how bad we are now because we haven't risen up yet! The more we wait, the harder it will get, but now it is time for gamers to rise together!”

PewDiePie (1989) Swedish YouTuber and video game commentator

25 July 2018
2018, ONLY REAL GAMERS CAN WATCH THIS

World , Cars , Imagination , Game

“Contemporary Americans are less likely to read the Declaration of Independence now that it's easily available on the Internet, than when it relied on horseback riders for its distribution.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

" The Declaration of Independence No Longer Expresses the American Mind," http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/07/the_declaration_no_longer_expresses_the_american_mind.htmlAmerican Thinker, July 4, 2017.
2010s, 2017

Reading

“The internet is not necessarily a golden goose yet, but we must fight to keep it safe, keep it level, keep it democratic, keep it open, keep it diverse so that when it becomes the golden goose, we independent artists can share and maybe at least get a wing or a thigh, even if we don’t get the breast meat.”

Lloyd Kaufman (1945) American film director

CraveOnline http://www.craveonline.com/film/articles/507781-exclusive-cannes-interview-lloyd-kaufman-on-nuke-em-high May 28, 2013
2013

Fight

“In terms of the Internet, it's like humanity acquiring a collective nervous system. Whereas previously we were more like a… collection of cells that communicated by diffusion. With the advent of the Internet, it was suddenly like we got a nervous system. It's a hugely impactful thing.”

Elon Musk (1971) South African-born American entrepreneur

[Mann, Adam, Video: Wired’s Interview with SpaceX’s Elon Musk, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/elon-musk-hangout/, 18 August 2012, Wired, 26 April 2012]

Communication

“We know for a fact that the library is the main access point to the Internet outside of the home and workplace. Particularly for young people, information about AIDS, sexuality, suicide could mean the difference between life and death. This law keeps us from giving people access to the information they need.”

Judith Krug (1940–2009) librarian and freedom of speech proponent

"ACLU, ALA File Law Suit Against Child Internet Protection Act - American Civil Liberties Union, American Library Association Declare Law Unconstitutional - Brief Article" Electronic Education Report (March 28, 2001)

Life , Death , People , Law

“In our Post era, a new phenomenon has emerged expressing this new associative will of the species: I mean the super-networks of communication [Internet]. On this I conceive two images, one enthusiast and another disappointed: I see Gea as a body (the Biosphere) and as a mind or spirit (the Exosphere); the human creatures would be the neurons and the electronic networks the dendrites. Okay, an autistic geopsychology, full of traumas, and other psych pathologies. But let's not say that we already lack the means to understand each other.”

Jorge Majfud (1969) Uruguayan-American writer

Critica de la pasión pura (1998)

Disappointment , Communication , Understanding

“To be successful, a campaign to maintain the free internet and freedom of information has to go beyond vandal hackers. Stunts designed not to provoke dialogue or persuade the public of the rightness of the cause but simply to throw up a middle finger to authority are more hindrance than help.”

Heather Brooke (1970) American journalist

The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/20/we-should-all-be-hactivists "We should all be hacktivists now", Column in the Guardian, 20 April 2012.
Attributed, In the Media

Freedom , Success , Help

“traditional media companies are not generating any profits from their Internet ventures.”

Manuel Castells (1942) Spanish sociologist (b.1942)

Source: The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001), Chapter 7, Multimedia and the Internet, p. 191

“The Internet is no longer a free realm, but neither has it fulfilled the Orwellian prophecy. It is a contested terrain, where the new, fundamental battle for freedom in the Information Age is being fought.”

Manuel Castells (1942) Spanish sociologist (b.1942)

Source: The Internet Galaxy - Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (2001), Chapter 6, Privacy and Liberty in Cyberspace, p. 171

Age , Freedom

“When on a long weekend away without the internet on your phone, you realise what's truly important in life. The internet on your phone.”

Benson Taylor (1983) composer and music producer from the United Kingdom

Benson Taylor (2014)
Twitter Post 2014 https://twitter.com/_bensontaylor/status/447780499696914432

Life

“This is the worst stuff on the Internet. There isn't anything worse than this.”

Bill O'Reilly (1949) American political commentator, television host and writer

2007-08-01
The O'Reilly Factor
Fox News
Television
http://www.billoreilly.com/show?action=viewTVShowByDate&date=20070801#5
on Daily Kos

“The language of the internet is English, and an overwhelming proportion of the global computer chatter also originates from America, influencing the content of global conversation.”

Zbigniew Brzeziński book The Grand Chessboard

Source: The Grand Chessboard (1997), Chapter 1, Hegemony Of A New Type, p. 25.

“Trying to assess the true importance and function of the Internet now is like asking the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk if they were aware of the potential of American Airlines Advantage miles.”

Bran Ferren (1953) American technologist

Quoted by Kevin Roberts (CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi), in Strategies for Peak Performance, September 8, 2013 http://www.saatchikevin.com/Strategies_for_Peak_Performance/,, and Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (publisher of the New York Times), in NYT publisher Sulzberger spoke yesterday about journalism's future, 2007-10-17, The Tufts Daily, en-US, 2017-01-17 http://tuftsdaily.com/archives/2007/10/17/nyt-publisher-sulzberger-spoke-yesterday-about-journalisms-future/,

“International trade in goods and services has expanded steadily over the past six decades thanks to declines in shipping and communication costs, globally negotiated reductions in government trade barriers, the widespread outsourcing of production activities, and a greater awareness of foreign cultures and products. New and better communications technologies, notably the Internet, have revolutionized the way people in all countries obtain and exchange information.”

Paul Krugman (1953) American economist

Paul R. Krugman, Maurice Obstfeld, and Marc J. Melitz, International Economics: Theory & Policy, 9th edition (2012)

People , Way , Communication , Past

“With wolf lay advocates it is just natural to want to promote their favorite animal and to try to counter the known negative effects of wolves and the claims fostered by people who vilify wolves, an increasing lot as wolves recover and proliferate. Thus wolf advocates eagerly seize on any study they consider favorable to wolves. The media become complicit by immediately publicizing such studies because of the controversial nature of the wolf. And all this publicity reverberates on the internet. Seldom, however, do studies contradicting the sensational early results receive similar publicity. The public is then left with a new image of the wolf that may be just as erroneous of the animal’s public image a century ago.”

L. David Mech (1937) American Biologist , Ecologist

Is science in danger of sanctifying the wolf? http://www.floridalupine.org/publications/PDF/Mech-2012-Is-Science-in-Danger-of-Sanctifying-the-Wolf.pdf Biological Conservation 150 143-149 (January, 2012).

People , Nature , Study , Wolf

“I think the Internet is the biggest classroom we have.”

Steven Novella (1964) American neurologist, skepticist

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, Podcast #47 – June 14th, 2006 http://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcast/sgu/47
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, Podcast, 2000s

Thinking

“My favorite thing about the Internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps without having to smell them.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

As quoted in "Thoughts On the Business of Life" in Forbes magazine (12 November 2007) http://www.forbes.com/business/forbes/2007/1112/192.html
2000s

World

“While nearly all of us use the Internet to fact check, learn about topics and read the news, some of us contribute more than others to the knowledge pool. Adrianne Wadewitz was one such woman.”

Adrianne Wadewitz (1977–2014) academic and Wikipedian

Brandt, Shane (April 22, 2014). "Wikipedia editor dies, leaving behind appreciative students" http://thedailycougar.com/2014/04/22/wikipedia-editor-dies-leaving-behind-appreciative-students/. The Daily Cougar (Houston, Texas: thedailycougar.com; University of Houston).
About

Knowledge , Learning , Reading

“The problems with software are just examples of the problems found generally with creativity. Our trend in copyright law has been to enclose as much as we can; the consequence of this enclosure is a stifling of creativity and innovation. If the Internet teaches us anything, it is that great value comes from leaving core resources in a commons, where they're free for people to build upon as they see fit.”

Lawrence Lessig (1961) American academic, political activist.

May the Source Be With You (2001)

People , Law , Problem