Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (attributed)

Do not accept anything because it comes from the mouth of a respected person. -- Buddha

Let me try to get this straight: Lisp is a language for describing algorithms. This was JohnMcCarthy's original purpose, anyway: to build something more convenient than a Turing machine. Lisp is not about file, socket or GUI programming - Lisp is about expressive power. (For example, you can design multiple object systems for Lisp, in Lisp. Or implement the now-fashionable AOP. Or do arbitrary transformations on parsed source code.) If you don't value expressive power, Lisp ain't for you. I, personally, would prefer Lisp to not become mainstream: this would necessarily involve a dumbing down. -- VladimirSlepnev

1 - Creativity and innovation always build on the past. 2 - The past always tries to control the creativity that builds on it. 3 - Free societies enable the future by limiting the past. 4 - Ours is less and less a free society. -- Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture.

Omit needless words. -- William Strunk, Jr. (The Elements of Style)

The three chief virtues of a programmer are: Laziness, Impatience and Hubris. -- Larry Wall (Programming Perl)

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. –Anais Nin

Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. ~Theodore N. Vail

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs