We really have to get over the idea that some stuff is just worth knowing even if you never do anything with it. Human memories happily erase stuff that has no purpose, so why try to fill up children's heads with such stuff? -- Roger Schank, Engines for Education

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.

For complex systems, the compiler and development environment need to be in the same language that its supporting. It's the only way to grow code. -- Alan Kay

Let me try to get this straight: Lisp is a language for describing algorithms. This was JohnMcCarthy's original purpose, anyway: to build something more convenient than a Turing machine. Lisp is not about file, socket or GUI programming - Lisp is about expressive power. (For example, you can design multiple object systems for Lisp, in Lisp. Or implement the now-fashionable AOP. Or do arbitrary transformations on parsed source code.) If you don't value expressive power, Lisp ain't for you. I, personally, would prefer Lisp to not become mainstream: this would necessarily involve a dumbing down. -- VladimirSlepnev

Measure everything you can about the product, and you'll start seeing patterns. -- Max Levchin, PayPal founder, Talk at StartupSchool2007

Lisp programmers know the value of everything but the cost of nothing. -- Alan J. Perlis

Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. – Ancient Indian Proverb

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absense of fear. ~Mark Twain

It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. –Mae Jemison