An interpreter raises the machine to the level of the user program; a compiler lowers the user program to the level of the machine language. -- SICP

Programmers are in a race with the Universe to create bigger and better idiot-proof programs, while the Universe is trying to create bigger and better idiots. So far the Universe is winning. -- Rich Cook

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. -- Elie Wiesel

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

Workers of the world, the chains that bind you are not held in place by a ruling class, a "superior" race, by society, the state, or a leader. They are held in place by none other than yourself. Those who seek to exploit are not themselves free, for they place no value in freedom. Who is it that really employs you and commands you to pick up your daily load? And who is it that you allow to pass judgment on the adequacy of your toil? Who have you empowered to dangle the carrot before you and threaten with disapproval? Who, when you wake each morning, sends you off to what you call your work? Is there an "I want to" behind all your "I have to," or have you been so long forgotten to yourself that "I want" exists only as an idea in your head? If you have disconnected from your soul's desire and are drowning in an ocean of "have to," then rise up and overthrow your master. Begin the journey toward emancipation. Work only in such a way that you are truly self-employed. -- Tim Gallwey, The inner game of work

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. -- Hans Hofmann

Eighty percent of success is showing up. –Woody Allen

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. –Anais Nin

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. –Aristotle

The best revenge is massive success. –Frank Sinatra