Its a shame that the students of our generation grew up with windows and mice because that tainted our mindset not to think in terms of powerful tools. Some of us are just so tainted that we will never recover. -- Jeffrey Mark Siskind in comp.lang.lisp
Opportunities that present themselves to you are the consequence -- at least partially -- of being in the right place at the right time. They tend to present themselves when you're not expecting it -- and often when you are engaged in other activities that would seem to preclude you from pursuing them. And they come and go quickly -- if you don't jump all over an opportunity, someone else generally will and it will vanish. -- Marc Andreessen (http://blog.pmarca.com/)
Saying that Java is nice because it works on all OSes is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders. -- Alanna
I think the root of your mistake is saying that macros don't scale to larger groups. The real truth is that macros don't scale to stupider groups. -- Paul Graham, on the Lightweight Languages mailing list.
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
Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. -- Thomas Edison
Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. –Teddy Roosevelt
Teach thy tongue to say, I do not know, and thous shalt progress. –Maimonides
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou