Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. -- Eleanor Roosevelt

While I’ve always appreciated beautiful code, I share Jonathan’s concern about studying it too much. I think studying beauty in music and painting has led us to modern classical music and painting that the majority of us just don’t get. Beauty can be seen when it emerges, but isn’t something to strive for in isolation of a larger context. In the software world, the larger context would be the utility of the software to the end user. -- [A comment on a blog]

Actually, the essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations on familiar themes. -- George Leonard, Mastery.

We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. -- Donald Knuth

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

State is the root of all evil. In particular functions with side effects should be avoided. -- OO Sucks (bluetail.com)

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself--the invisible battles inside all of us--that's where it's at. –Jesse Owens

Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marine

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

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. –Booker T. Washington