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.

The lesson of the story might appear to be that self-interested and ambitious people in power are often the cause of wastefulness in developing countries. But self-interested and ambitious people are in positions of power, great and small, all over the world. In many places, they are restrained by the law, the press, and democratic opposition. Cameroon's tragedy is that there is nothing to hold self-interest in check. -- Tim Harford

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

Be the change you want to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

Any code of your own that you haven’t looked at for six or more months might as well have been written by someone else. -- Eagleson’s Law

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

If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat! Just get on. –Sheryl Sandberg

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. –George Addair

Life isn't about getting and having, it's about giving and being. –Kevin Kruse

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. –Lao Tzu