All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection. -- Butler Lampson

I think it is wise, and only honest, to warn you that my goal is immodest. It is not my purpose to "transfer knowledge" to you that, subsequently, you can forget again. My purpose is no less than to effectuate in each of you a noticeable, irreversable change. I want you to gain, for the rest of your lives, the insight that beautiful proofs are not "found" by trial anf error but are the result of a consciously applied design discipline. I want you to raise your quality standards. I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself "Dijkstra would not have liked this", well, that would be enough immortality for me. -- E. W. Dijkstra

You must always work not just within but below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle five. In that way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery and you create a feeling of strength in reserve. -- Pablo Picasso

In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that it is true and try to find out what it could be true of. -- George Miller

No problem should ever have to be solved twice. -- Eric S. Raymond, How to become a hacker

Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed. -- George Burns

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. –Tony Robbins

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. –Leonardo da Vinci

The starting point of all achievement is desire. ~Napolean Hill

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt