Linus Torvalds Quotes

Unfortunately, many people do not consider fun an important item on their daily agenda. For me, that was always a high priority in whatever I was doing.

I did for the fun of it

For me, I think that I don't like feeling pressure from outside sources. I'd rather put the pressure on myself and push myself to do it as good as I can.

I only really work when I want to.

I try not to do anything I don't like, so I stay motivated pretty easily.

When I'm working on something, I proceed as if no one else will ever read it.

If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it.

The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves.

I’m doing this because I like it.

I always do what I'm most interested in first.

I set my own personal goals; I'm not playing to satisfy fans.

I always try to do the most interesting, fun thing for me.

My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly.

You play a part in every aspect of your life going the way you want or not going the way that you want. It has very little to do with other people.

Doing what you wanted to do was the only training, and the only preliminary, needed for doing more of what you wanted to do.

It's not up to anyone else to make me give my best.

A man who cannot command himself will always be a slave.

Know what the Taliban leaders like to do for fun? Just sit around and get bombed.

I don't think you play for other people's expectations, you know. You don't go and become a lawyer because your mother or father want you to, you don't become a coach because somebody wants you to.

Although traditional incentives such as bonuses or recognition can prod people to better performance, no external motivators can get people to perform at their absolute best. . . .Wherever people gravitate within their work roles, indicates where their real pleasure lies—and that pleasure is itself motivating.

Love what you do, or don't do it. Don't make a choice of any kind, whether in career or in life, just because it pleases others or because it ranks high on someone else's scale of achievement...Make the choice to do something because it engages your heart as well as your mind. Make the choice because it engages all of you.

Only disciplined people become free, but their discipline is not obedience to others: their discipline is obedience to their own inner voice. And they are ready to risk anything for it.

I've decided I can't really control people's perceptions of me. All I can do is decide on what I work on and how hard I work on it.