quotations about the Internet
Well, the Internet is this miracle. It is an absolutely extraordinary idea that you can press a send button, and you are publishing to the world.
BARRY DILLER
USA Today, Apr. 30, 2009
The Internet is like a vault with a screen door on the back. I don't need hammers and bombs to get in when I can walk in through the door.
WILLIAM R. CHESWICK
"Cracks in the Net", Time, February 27, 1995
During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.
AL GORE
often misquoted as "I invented the Internet", CNN Late Edition, March 9, 1999
I absolutely believe the Internet is passing from its free days into a paid system. Inevitably, I promise you, it will be paid. Not every single thing, but anything of value.
BARRY DILLER
interview, ZDNEt, Jun. 10, 2009
Stupid Internet. I don't know why everyone is so impressed with it.
PAMELA ANDERSON
Elle Magazine, March 19, 2014
Only on the Internet can a person be lonely and popular at the same time.
ALLISON BURNETT
Undiscovered Gyrl
Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority. It wasn't like somebody told me about it and I said, "I don't know how to spell that." I said, "Yeah, I've got that on my list, so I'm okay." But there came a point when we realized it was happening faster and was a much deeper phenomenon than had been recognized in our strategy.
BILL GATES
speech at Washington University, Jul. 2, 1998
Managing your own impression on the Internet is like navigating white water with two-by-fours for oars.
PATRICIA WALLACE
The Psychology of the Internet
When we sent that first message, there weren't any reporters, cameras, tape recorders or scribes to document that major event.... We knew we were creating an important new technology that we expected would be of use to a segment of the population, but we had no idea how truly momentous an event it was.
LEONARD KLEINROCK
"Internet Began 35 Years Ago at UCLA with First Message Ever Sent Between Two Computers", September 2, 2004
The Internet has made me very casual with a level of omniscience that was unthinkable a decade ago. I now wonder if God gets bored knowing the answer to everything.
DOUGLAS COUPLAND
"Transience Is Now Permanence & the Fate of the Middle Classes", January 2010
The number of websites increases in geometric proportions every year, every month. It is said that one month in Internet is like one year outside the net. In fact, net professionals are known for their reluctance to take more than a seven or ten days vacation. They are concerned that the competition may outrun them.
SANTIAGO POSTEGUILLO
Netlinguistics
There's going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn't necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You've got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.... So I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works. He said "of course there is".
LAWRENCE LESSIG
Fortune Brainstorm panel, 2008
Most of us employ the Internet not to seek the best information, but rather to select information that confirms our prejudices.
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
New York Times, May 27, 2009
Censorship is saying: "I'm the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine." But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word -- even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.
AI WEIWEI
"China's censorship can never defeat the internet", The Guardian, April 15, 2012
The internet is like the central nervous system of modern society.
WEI ZHAO
"A Discussion About the Impact of Electronic Commerce on Accounting", 2013 International Conference on Complex Science Management and Education
Writing in a book about the Internet is like . . . uh, well, it's weird. And it's really hard. Is there anything the Internet is not about? Is there anything that's not on the Internet? I live in a world in which things somehow gain legitimacy by being represented via a vast computer network, a network that transforms things that were perfectly fine for a million jillion years into fodder for online message boards.
JOEL HENG HARTSE
Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll: My Life on Record
Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and uh, then the damn thing just died on us.
JON STEWART
College of William & Mary Commencement Address, May 20, 2004
The Internet is like a huge library with vast resources of information available. It is impossible to keep track of all the numerous services it provides as well as account for frequent changes. Without a feasible means of searching, and, better still, of cataloguing and indexing, finding information on the Internet is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
JIMIN HE
Internet Resources for Engineers
Media used to be one way. Everyone else in the world just had to listen. Now the internet is allowing what used to be a monologue to become a dialogue. I think that's healthy.
JOSEPH GORDON LEVITT
attributed, "How successful is Blade Runner in demonstrating a future for sociological street culture?", Academia
When the internet publicity began, I remember being struck by how much the world was not the way we thought it was, that there was infinite variation in how people viewed the world.
ERIC SCHMIDT
"Google Chief: My Fears for Generation Facebook", The Independent, August 17, 2010