[Home](https://tednelsonfan.com/) / Quotes # Only the lines he actually wrote or said. Each quotation names the book, page or web page it comes from, and most link to his own site. Nothing here is from a quote aggregator. Spelling and his double-hyphen dashes are kept. ## In his words - By 'hypertext' I mean non-sequential writing-- text that branches and allows choices to the reader, best read at an interactive screen. Literary Machines, 1981 (section 0/2). [Wikipedia, Literary Machines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_Machines). - Everything is deeply intertwingled ... there are no 'subjects' at all; there is only all knowledge, since the cross-connections among the myriad topics of this world simply cannot be divided up neatly. Computer Lib/Dream Machines, 1974 (Dream Machines side). [Wikipedia, Intertwingularity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intertwingularity). - You can and must understand computers NOW. Computer Lib, 1974, the cover slogan. [Wikipedia, Computer Lib/Dream Machines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Lib/Dream_Machines). - The purpose of computers is human freedom. Computer Lib, 1974, as he quotes himself on his OneLiners page. [his OneLiners page, 1999](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.html). - No one's life has yet been simplified by a computer. Computer Lib, 1974, via his OneLiners page. [his OneLiners page, 1999](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.html). - In 1974, computers were oppressive devices in far-off airconditioned places. Now you can be oppressed by computers in your own living room. Computer Lib, 1987 edition, via his OneLiners page. [his OneLiners page, 1999](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.html). - The Xanadu project did not 'fail to invent HTML'. HTML is precisely what we were trying to PREVENT. Ted's ComParadigm in OneLiners, 1999. Wikipedia carries the longer form: '... ever-breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can't follow to their origins, no version management, no rights management.'. [his OneLiners page, 1999](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.html). - Trying to fix HTML is like trying to graft arms and legs onto hamburger. Ted's ComParadigm in OneLiners, 1999. [his OneLiners page, 1999](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.html). - The Web is the minimal concession to hypertext that a sequence-and-hierarchy chauvinist could possibly make. Ted's ComParadigm in OneLiners, 1999. [his OneLiners page, 1999](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.html). - Imitating paper on a computer screen is like tearing the wings off a 747 and using it as a bus on the highway. Ted's ComParadigm in OneLiners, 1999. [his OneLiners page, 1999](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.html). - Calling a hierarchical directory a 'folder' doesn't change its nature any more than calling a prison guard a 'counselor'. Ted's ComParadigm in OneLiners, 1999. [his OneLiners page, 1999](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/TN/WRITINGS/TCOMPARADIGM/tedCompOneLiners.html). - We hope for vindication, the last laugh, and recognition as an additional standard-- electronic documents with visible connections. Project Xanadu home page, xanadu.com. [xanadu.com](https://xanadu.com/). - SOMEONE has to have a different point of view. His Keio-era home page at xanadu.com.au/ted. [his Keio-era home page](https://xanadu.com.au/ted/). - The world would have been a better place if I had succeeded, but I ain't dead yet. Accepting an honorary doctorate at Chapman University, 2014, as reported by Wikipedia. [Wikipedia, Ted Nelson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson). - Designer, Generalist, Contrarian. How he describes himself on his Who I Am page, 1998. [his own Who I Am page](https://ted.hyperland.com/whoIam/). ## What others said - Tesla:Electricity = Nelson:Digital. All of the web is essentially a pale shadow of one of Ted Nelson's dreams. Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus, quoted by the Internet Archive, 2010. [Source](https://blog.archive.org/2010/10/15/ted-nelson-launches-his-autobiography-at-internet-archive/). - Ted Nelson is the Thomas Paine of the Information Revolution. Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, quoted by the Internet Archive, 2010. [Source](https://blog.archive.org/2010/10/15/ted-nelson-launches-his-autobiography-at-internet-archive/). - A truly first-class mind ... one of the dozen or so most brilliant people I've met. Eric Raymond, quoted by the Internet Archive, 2010. [Source](https://blog.archive.org/2010/10/15/ted-nelson-launches-his-autobiography-at-internet-archive/). - Xanadu, a global hypertext publishing system, is the longest-running vaporware story in the history of the computer industry. Gary Wolf, Wired, June 1995, the opening of The Curse of Xanadu; Nelson disputed the article at length. [Source](https://www.wired.com/1995/06/xanadu/). - Essential reading as background, enthusiasm and ideas on hypertext. Tim Berners-Lee, on Literary Machines, his CERN hypertext pages, 1992. [Source](https://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/Products/Xanadu/Xanadu.html). - A 'systems humanist' designer whose vision of a Utopian world of intellect focused around the computer screen foresaw, from the 1960s, the kind of cyberworld that has been opened forty years later. Oxford Internet Institute, his fellow profile. [Source](https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/ted-nelson/). --- An independent fan and tribute site celebrating the work of Ted Nelson. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or the official site of Ted Nelson or Project Xanadu. His real sites are xanadu.com and hyperland.com.