Quotes

Quotes

Introduction

There are many quotes that have a struck a chord in me, but I always seemed to forgot the exact text and who uttered them. So to fight my amnesia in this respect, I decided I would write them down. Below you will find my collection. It's not that big yet, but I am not aiming for quantity... By the way, they are listed in no particular order.

If you have suggestions or corrections, please feel free to contact me: info@bjmsoftware.com.

Quotes

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
- Confucius

I would rather be a failure doing something I love than a success doing something I hate.
- George Burns

Take control of your destiny... If you don't, somebody else will!
- Unknown

Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.
- Winston Churchill

For an idea which, at first, does not seem absurd, there is no hope.
- Albert Einstein

Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt!
- Shakespeare

The main thing is to keep The Main Thing the main thing.
- Hyrum W. Smith

A conservative is a man with 2 good legs who has not learned how to walk forward.
- FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
- Theodore Roosevelt

It often takes more courage to change one's opinion than to stick to it.
- Geoffrey F. Abert

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.
- Auric Goldfinger, in "Goldfinger" by Ian L. Fleming (1908-1964)

I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.
- Kurt D. Cobain (1967 - 1994) - singer of Nirvana

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
- Albert Einstein

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
- Edsger W. Dijkstra

The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.
- Edsger W. Dijkstra

The "problem" is sometimes the fact that you're looking for a solution in the wrong direction altogether.
- Ian Kirk

Don't implement what customers ask for. Solve the problem behind what they're asking for.
- Gary Whizin, past Delphi R&D manager

All methodologies are based on fear.
- Kent Beck

Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

At the end of the American Civil War somebody asked: "Mr. President, why don't you want to destroy your enemies?"
Lincoln answered: "Is that not what I do when I make them my friends?"

Without Dreams... Life is Nothing.

If you don't have a dream, how are you gonna make a dream come true?
- from "Happy Talk" by Captain Sensible

No rain, no rainbows...
- Radek Jedrasiak

Sterf niet voor je dood gaat.
(Don't stop living before you die.)

We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.
- Benjamin Franklin

Breaking stuff can be a very effective way to learn.
- Karl Perry

The only stupid questions are those not asked.
- Peter Below

Success is the result of good judgment, good judgment is the result of experience, and experience is often the result of bad judgment!
- Anthony Robbins

Programming is an art form that fights back.
- Chad Z. Hower (Kudzu)

In theory practice works the same as theory.
- Peter Below

A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.
- Samuel Butler

Those who disdain wealth as a worthy goal for an individual or a society seem not to realize that wealth is the only thing that can prevent poverty.
- Thomas Sowell

Stupid programmer errors take hours to find. Smart programmer errors take days to find.
- Sue D. Nom

Have you have ever stopped to think... and forgot to start again?

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter.
- Blaise Pascal

There is no idea so simple and powerful that you can't get zillions of people to misunderstand it.
- Alan Kay

Never be afraid to try something new; remember, amateurs built the Ark, and professionals built the Titanic
- Bill Brown, Pastor of Christ UMC of Baltimore Maryland

If a trainstation is a place where a train stops, what is a workstation?

I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.
- John Steinbeck

Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goals.
- Henry Ford

Humans are illogical, emotion-driven beings that use their logic to justify their nutty decisions.

If you have to act in a particular way to avoid being something you don't like, you're trapped.
- Debbie Ford, "Dark side of the Light Chasers"

If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't.

Courage is fear plus action.

The only time we fail is when we stop trying.

I don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.
- Groucho Marx

Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.
- Martin Fowler, "Refactoring"

If the programmer's job was to WRITE code, we wouldn't need anything more sophisticated than COPY CON
- John Elrick

It takes less time to do a thing right than explain why you did it wrong.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Minds are like parachutes... they only function when open.
- Thomas Dewar

Your mind is the only prison that can ever bind your soul.

My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and it is gone.
- Woody

The state, it cannot be too often repeated, does nothing and can give nothing which it does not take from somebody.
- William Graham Sumner, address, "The Forgotten Man," 1883

We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs and the Universe producing bigger and better idiots - so far, the Universe is winning.
- Rich Cook

But what... is it good for?
- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
- C.S. Lewis

To be successful in any sort of endeavor, you must have a definite goal toward which to work. You must have definite plans for attaining this goal. Nothing is ever accomplished that is worthwhile without a definite plan of procedure that is systematically and continuously followed day by day.
- Napoleon Hill

If you are unhappy
Once upon a time, there was a nonconforming sparrow who decided not to fly south for the winter. Soon the weather turned so cold that he reluctantly started to fly south. In a short time ice began to form on his wings and he fell to earth in a barnyard, almost frozen. A cow passed by and crapped on the little sparrow. The sparrow thought it was the end. But, the manure warmed him and defrosted his wings. Warm and happy, able to breathe, he started to sing. Just then a large cat came by and hearing the chirping investigated the sounds. The cat cleared away the manure, found the chirping bird and promptly ate him.
The moral of the story:
- Everyone who shits on you is not necessarily your enemy.
- Everyone who gets you out of the shit is not necessarily your friend.
- And, if you're warm and happy in a pile of shit, keep your mouth shut.