We are the sum of our behaviours; excellence therefore is not an act but a habit. -- Aristotle.

Have you ever noticed that when you sit down to write something, half the ideas that end up in it are ones you thought of while writing it? The same thing happens with software. Working to implement one idea gives you more ideas. -- Paul Graham, The other road ahead.

No art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to excel in it. -- Alberti

No matter how much you plan you’re likely to get half wrong anyway. So don’t do the ‘paralysis through analysis’ thing. That only slows progress and saps morale. -- 37 Signal, Getting real

My dream is that people adopt it on its own merits. We're not trying to bend Ruby on Rails to fit the enterprise, we're encouraging enterprises to bend to Ruby on Rails. Come if you like it, stay away if you don't. We're not going head over heels to accommodate the enterprise or to lure them away from Java. That's how you end up with Java, if you start bending to special interest groups. -- David Heinemeier Hansson (Ruby On Rails' creator)

In general, we can think of data as defined by some collection of selectors and constructors, together with specified conditions that these procedures must fulfill in order to be a valid representation. -- SICP, What is meant by data?

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. –Martin Luther King Jr.

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. –Tony Robbins

You may only succeed if you desire succeeding; you may only fail if you do not mind failing. ~Philippos

The only way to do great work is to love what you do. –Steve Jobs