The acts of the mind, wherein it exerts its power over simple ideas, are chiefly these three: 1. Combining several simple ideas into one compound one, and thus all complex ideas are made. 2. The second is bringing two ideas, whether simple or complex, together, and setting them by one another so as to take a view of them at once, without uniting them into one, by which it gets all its ideas of relations. 3. The third is separating them from all other ideas that accompany them in their real existence: this is called abstraction, and thus all its general ideas are made. -- John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. -- author unknown (quoted in `Robust Systems', Gerald Jay Suseman)

So - what are the most important problems in software engineering? I’d answer “dealing with complexity”. -- Mark Chu-Carroll

Dont give users the opportunity to lock themselves. -- unknown

Good ideas are out there for anyone with the wit and the will to find them. -- Malcolm Gladwell, Who says big ideas are rare?

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. And I'm not so sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. ~Anonymous

Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to doDon’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. ~Jim Rohn

A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. –Unknown

I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. –Benjamin Franklin