You can recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity. When you get it right, it is obvious that it is right. -- Richard Feynman

To iterate is human, to recurse divine. -- L. Peter Deutsch

While I’ve always appreciated beautiful code, I share Jonathan’s concern about studying it too much. I think studying beauty in music and painting has led us to modern classical music and painting that the majority of us just don’t get. Beauty can be seen when it emerges, but isn’t something to strive for in isolation of a larger context. In the software world, the larger context would be the utility of the software to the end user. -- [A comment on a blog]

Only bad designers blame their failings on the users. -- unknown

Some people suggest that machines would be friendlier if input could be in a natural language. But natural language is probably the worst kind of input because it can be quite ambiguous. The process of retrieving information from the computer would be so time-consuming that you would be better off spending that time getting the information directly from an expert. -- Gary Kildall (inventor of CP/M, one of the first OS for the micro).

Attitude is no substitute for competence. -- Eric S. Raymond, How to become a hacker

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. ~Steve Jobs

I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse. –Florence Nightingale

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso

The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it. ~Henry Ford