Linus Torvalds

"I don't care about being politically correct. I care about being right."

"Your job as a programmer is not to create code; it's to solve problems."

"Don't ever make the mistake of thinking you can improve something by using a computer."

"Linux is only free if your time has no value."

"I'm basically a very pragmatic person. That's it."

"Version control is not a luxury, it's a necessity."

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing code. So if you write code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it."

"People can really be fucking stupid sometimes."

"Open source is the future. It's not even the future—it's the now."

"I wanted to call it 'Freax', but that was already taken."

"Real men don't use backups. They post their stuff on ftp and let the world mirror it."

"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them."

"The most important thing is to keep learning; learning never exhausts the mind."

"I think computer science is fundamentally about breaking down problems into manageable pieces."

"Technical skill is not enough. You need passion."

"Any program is only as reliable as its weakest link."

"I don't think anybody should write their autobiography until after they're dead."

"The point of open source is not just code, but a way of thinking."

"Perfection is the enemy of good."

"I appreciate good design, but I am after the substance."

"If you think you're the best, you're probably not."

"The fundamental problem is that programmers are optimists."

"Merging is a much underrated part of making software."

"I'm a big believer in 'just do it' rather than talking about doing it."

"Most of my work is in the background, doing things nobody sees but everything depends on."

"Community is everything in open source."

"Simple is better than complex, but complex is better than complicated."

"I think the biggest problem with code is that it has to be read by humans."

"Software is a democratic thing. Everyone should have access."

"Technology is best when it gets out of the way."