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

Opportunities that present themselves to you are the consequence -- at
least partially -- of being in the right place at the right time. They
tend to present themselves when you're not expecting it -- and often
when you are engaged in other activities that would seem to preclude you
from pursuing them. And they come and go quickly -- if you don't jump
all over an opportunity, someone else generally will and it will vanish.
-- Marc Andreessen (http://blog.pmarca.com/)

No art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to
excel in it.
-- Alberti

Do you want to sell sugared water all your life or do you want to change
the world?
-- Steve Jobs, to John Sculley (former Pepsi executive)

We remember what we learn when we care about performing better and when
we believe that what we have been asked to do is representative of
reality.
-- Roger Schank, Engines for Education

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
-- Thomas Edison

What is truth?
-- Pontius Pilate

In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice. But in
practice, there is.
-- Albert Einstein

Acknowledging the negative doesn't mean sniveling [whining, complaining]; it
means facing the truth and then moving on.
-- George Leonard, Mastery.

La tactique, c'est ce que vous faites quand il y a quelque chose à
faire; la stratégie, c'est ce que vous faites quand il n'y a rien à
faire.
-- Xavier Tartacover

If something isn’t working, you need to look back and figure out what
got you excited in the first place.
-- David Gorman (ImThere.com)

The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he
wants to do it [Leadership].
-- Dwight D. Enseinhover.

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.
-- Brian Kernigan

Simplicity takes effort-- genius, even.
-- Paul Graham

Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it)
in programming.
-- Donald Knuth

La connaissance d'un défaut ne l'enlève pas, elle nous torture jusqu'à sa
correction.
-- Daniel Lovewin (Guillaume Kpotufe)

Resume writing is just like dating, or applying for a bank loan, in that
nobody wants you if you're desperate.
-- Steve Yegge.

Why teach drawing to accountants? Because drawing class doesn't just
teach people to draw. It teaches them to be more observant. There's no
company on earth that wouldn't benefit from having people become more
observant.
-- Randy S. Nelson (dean of Pixar University)

We fail to realize that mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process,
a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after
year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for
as long as he or she lives.
-- George Leonard, Mastery.

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

Ils ne sont pas forts parce qu'ils sont forts. Ils sont forts parce que
nous sommes faibles.
-- Ragala Khalid

The best is the enemy of the good.
-- Voltaire

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
-- Mark Twain

Being a programmer is the same way. The only way to be a good programmer
is to write code. When you realize you haven't been writing much code
lately, and it seems like all you do is brag about code you wrote in the
past, and people start looking at you funny while you're shooting your
mouth off, realize it's because they know. They might not even know they
know, but they know. So, yes, doing what you love brings success, and by
all means, throw yourself a nice big party, buy yourself a nice car,
soak up the adulation of an adoring crowd. Then shut the fuck up and get
back to work.
-- Sincerity Theory

XML wasn't designed to be edited by humans on a regular basis.
-- Guido van Rossum