Quotations

Things I have read in or out of context wich I find interesting or challenging or simply worth remembering.

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
-- Gautma Buddha, first read here

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
-- Albert Einstein, fist read here

Be The Difference You Want To See In The World.
-- Mahatma Gandi first read here

Don't try to be original, just try to be good!
-- Paul Rand from Paul Rand Tribute

A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship.
-- John D. Rockefeller, thanks Nicolas ;)

If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.
-- Thomas Watson, Founder of IBM (from http://www.johnseelybrown.com).

Many of life's failure are people who didn't realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
-- Thomas Edison, in an old blog post (cf. 20030311).

When we say that pleasure is the goal we [mean] freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the mind.
-- Epicurus

When we don't understand a process, we fall into magical thinking about results.
-- Jef Raskin (from Silicon Superstitions)

You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
-- Admiral Jim Stockdale in Good to Great by Jim Collins (from here).

Writing software to your advantage is always about minimizing unnecessary dependencies.
-- Patrick Logan at http://patricklogan.blogspot.com/.

True greatness is measured by how much freedom you give to others, not by how much you can coerce others to do what you want.
-- Larry Wall, Creator of Perl (from http://www.pmichaud.com).

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

The IT industry is looking more and more like a traditional, mature manufacturing business. Plagued by undifferentiated products, global overcapacity, and falling prices, hardware and software companies are consolidating, shifting production offshore, and making money on maintenance and other fee-based services. They're competing on cost rather than innovation and features.
-- Nicolas Carr

I’ll throw the damned rearview mirror out of the damned window because I don’t want to know where I’ve come from, but where I’m going.
-- Frank Lloyd Wright

If it is to be, it is up to me.
-- Ron Barasi

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.
-- G.K. Chesterton

Good design adds value faster than it adds cost.
-- Thomas C. Gale, the famous Chrysler automobile designer who retired in 2001

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
-- Richard Feynman

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
-- Anatole France

Friends are God's apology for relations.
-- Hugh Kingsmill Lunn

A charlatan makes obscure what is clear; a thinker makes clear what is obscure.
-- Hugh Kingsmill (from Glenn Vandenburg).

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
-- Bertrand Russell (idem)

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy (from Patrick Logan's blog)

Ignore fact and reason, live entirely in the world of your own fantastic and myth-producing passions; do this whole-heartedly and with conviction, and you will become one of the prophets of your age.
-- Betrand Russell (from How to become a man of genius)

Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.
-- Henri Cartier-Bresson

We should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours.
-- Benjamin Franklin from a speech by Peter Norvig.

Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.
-- Alan Kay

What I cannot create, I do not understand.
-- Richard Feynman (taken from his chalkboard after his death from When understanding means rewriting)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-- Arthur C. Clarke in Profiles of The Future (from Steve Holden's blog)

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
-- Carl Sagan

It is not about bits, bytes and protocols but profits, losses and margins.
-- Lou Gerstner

Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because thy require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.
-- Edsger Dijkstra (from Your Favorite Programming Quote)

Perfection [in design] is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (from Your Favorite Programming Quote)

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
-- Albert Einstein (from Your Favorite Programming Quote)

Talk is cheap. Show me the code.
-- Linus Torvalds (from Your Favorite Programming Quote, special though to JFR)

I can really perceive how much the science of numbers is beautiful and useful when we use it to understand and not to distort.
-- Plato, The Republic.