Good programmers use their brains, but good guidelines save us having to think out every case. -- Francis Glassborow
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. -- Bertrand Russell
Lisp is a programmable programming language. -- John Foderaro
Simplicity takes effort-- genius, even. -- Paul Graham
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
What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's "worth?" The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will. -- Paul Graham
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. –Chinese Proverb
Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time. ~George Bernard Shaw
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford