We reject: kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and running code.

, on slide 19 of A Cloudy Crystal Ball - Visions of the Future, a presentation he gave at the 24th IETF meeting, 1992.

This is one of the most famous descriptions of how the IETF works, but 99.9% of the time it’s quoted, it’s taken quite thoroughly out of context. The original deck is worth reading in full! It’s relevant to more of today’s problems than you might expect.