Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. -- Randy Pausch

The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise. -- Edsger Dijkstra

Functional programming is to algorithms as the ubiquitous little black dress is to women's fashion. -- Mark Tarver (of "The bipolar Lisp programmer" fame)

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.

If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as lines produced but as lines spent. -- Edsger Dijkstra

Some may say Ruby is a bad rip-off of Lisp or Smalltalk, and I admit that. But it is nicer to ordinary people. -- Matz, LL2

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. ~Truman Capote

The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself. ~Mark Caine

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. ~ Jim Rohn

You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them. ~Michael Jordan