All creativity is an extended form of a joke. -- Alan Kay

Since programmers create programs out of nothing, imagination is our only limitation. Thus, in the world of programming, the hero is the one who has great vision. Paul Graham is one of our contemporary heroes. He has the ability to embrace the vision, and to express it plainly. His works are my favorites, especially the ones describing language design. He explains secrets of programming, languages, and human nature that can only be learned from the hacker experience. This book shows you his great vision, and tells you the truth about the nature of hacking. -- Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto, creator of Ruby

Lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot. -- Eric S. Raymond

A little learning is a dangerous thing. -- Alexander Pope

I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind. -- Alan Kay

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.

Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them. ~Vaibhav Shah

Knowledge is being aware of what you can do. Wisdom is knowing when not to do it. ~Anonymous

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. ~Margaret Thatcher

An unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates