The venerable master Qc Na was walking with his student, Anton. Hoping to prompt the master into a discussion, Anton said "Master, I have heard that objects are a very good thing - is this true?" Qc Na looked pityingly at his student and replied, "Foolish pupil - objects are merely a poor man's closures." Chastised, Anton took his leave from his master and returned to his cell, intent on studying closures. He carefully read the entire "Lambda: The Ultimate..." series of papers and its cousins, and implemented a small Scheme interpreter with a closure-based object system. He learned much, and looked forward to informing his master of his progress. On his next walk with Qc Na, Anton attempted to impress his master by saying "Master, I have diligently studied the matter, and now understand that objects are truly a poor man's closures." Qc Na responded by hitting Anton with his stick, saying "When will you learn? Closures are a poor man's object." At that moment, Anton became enlightened. -- Anton van Straaten (Na = Norman Adams, Qa = Christian Queinnec)

We now come to the decisive step of mathematical abstraction: we forget about what the symbols stand for. ...[The mathematician] need not be idle; there are many operations which he may carry out with these symbols, without ever having to look at the things they stand for. -- Hermann Weyl, The Mathematical Way of Thinking

When your enemy is making a very serious mistake, don't be impolite and disturb him. -- Napoleon Bonaparte (allegedly)

The wonderful and frustrating thing about understanding yourself is that nobody can do it for you. -- BetterExplained.com

Remember that you are humans in the first place and only after that programmers. -- Alexandru Vancea

As builders and creators finding the perfect solution should not be our main goal. We should find the perfect problem. -- Isaac (blog comment)

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. ~Anonymous

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. –Babe Ruth

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. ~Anonymous

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. ~Albert Einstein