Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. -- Cited by Randy Pausch

We really have to get over the idea that some stuff is just worth knowing even if you never do anything with it. Human memories happily erase stuff that has no purpose, so why try to fill up children's heads with such stuff? -- Roger Schank, Engines for Education

This challenge, viz. the confrontation with the programming task, is so unique that this novel experience can teach us a lot about ourselves. It should deepen our understanding of the processes of design and creation, it should give us better control over the task of organizing our thoughts. If it did not do so, to my taste we should no deserve the computer at all! It has allready taught us a few lessons, and the one I have chosen to stress in this talk is the following. We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremenduous difficulty, provided that we stick to modest and elegant programming languages, provided that we respect the intrinsec limitations of the human mind and approach the task as Very Humble Programmers. -- E. W. Dijkstra, The humble programmer

The programmer must seek both perfection of part and adequacy of collection. -- Alan J. Perlis

The problem is that Microsoft just has no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way. -- Steve Jobs

What is truth? -- Pontius Pilate

In my experience, there is only one motivation, and that is desire. No reasons or principle contain it or stand against it. ~Jane Smiley

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar

We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. –Marie Curie

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. –Les Brown