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

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

Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight. -- Bill Gates

I'm always happy to trade performance for readability as long as the former isn't already scarce. -- Crayz (Commentor on blog.raganwald.com)

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

If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in. -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. –Latin Proverb

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. –Maya Angelou

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. –Amelia Earhart

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. ~Dale Carnegie