Jimmy Wales's Quotes

One of the ways that Microsoft beat Apple way back in the day was that they were a lot more open; today, in the world I come from, the free software and open-source world, Microsoft is not generally viewed as open; they're viewed as proprietary.

People take issue with individual aspects of Wikipedia all the time. But it's kind of hard to hate the general idea of a free encyclopedia. It's like hating kittens.

The Supreme Court has held that code is speech. And it doesn't matter that it's done on a computer or done face to face or done in a newspaper, reporting the facts of the world is protected speech.

To create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language - That's who I am. That's what I am doing. That's my life goal.

We've seen how grassroots journalism by blogs has had an impact at various points politically, as ordinary people have amplified stories that were being ignored by the traditional press.

What can we put into the hands of people under oppressive regimes to help them? For me, a big part of it is information, knowledge - the ability to defeat propaganda by understanding it.

While I'm optimistic about the direction the world is headed, generally, I think there is a need for constant vigilance and pressure on repressive governments.

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

I have no regular schedule. I get up whenever I can.

It just didn't occur to me, sitting at my computer, that I would end up travelling all over the world.

If it isn't on Google, it doesn't exist.

Things work well when a group of people know each other, and things break down when it's a bunch of random people interacting.

A huge amount of what goes on in the Middle East has to do with people being fed really bad information.

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

Dialing down is not an option for me.

Free speech includes the right to not speak.

I am really accessible.

I can't do anything quietly anymore.

I don't come down on any simple place as a deletionist or a completionist.

I don't worry. It's just not in my nature, really.

I have zero interest in sports of any kind - professional, college or international.

I just get up every day and do what seems like the most interesting, fun thing to do.

I still believe there is a need to open up search and it will come eventually. It is very important to challenge the current models.

I think it's a mistake to treat different realms of knowledge as if they are some how fundamentally the same.

I think people have to recognise that the traditional modes of authority weren't that great.

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

I worry about censorship in many parts of the world.

I'm not real good at the administrative part of running a company.

I'm very much an Enlightenment kind of guy.

If I had some information, the last thing I would ever do with it is send it to Wikileaks.

If you see a blatant error or misconception about yourself, you really want to set it straight.

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.