Author: LINUS FERNANDES
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Sun Tzu: Conquered foe
“This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one’s own strength.”—Sun Tzu.
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Sun Tzu: Skillful soldier
“The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy, nor are his supply wagons loaded more than once.”—Sun Tzu.
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Andrew Clark: You’re overcomplicating it
‘In programming, if someone tells you “you’re overcomplicating it,” they’re either 10 steps behind you or 10 steps ahead of you.’ ––Andrew Clark.
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Thomas Pynchon: Inamorati Anonymous
‘”I’ll tell you what I know, then,” he decided. “The pin I’m wearing means I’m a member of the IA. That’s Inamorati Anonymous. An inamorato is somebody in love. That’s the worst addiction of all.” “Somebody is about to fall in love,” Oedipa said, “you go sit with them, or something?” “Right. The whole idea…
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William Safire: Rules for writing
“Do not put statements in the negative form. And don’t start sentences with a conjunction. If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. Unqualified superlatives are the worst of…
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Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front
“This book (All Quiet on the Western Front) is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have…
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Cal Keegan: Spare time
“Life begins when you can spend your spare time programming instead of watching television.” —Cal Keegan.
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Isaac Asimov: False image
Pelorat sighed. “I will never understand people.” “There’s nothing to it. All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. How would Seldon have worked out his Plan — and I don’t care how subtle his mathematics was — if he didn’t understand people; and how…
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Friedrich Nietzsche: My task
“The better the state is established, the fainter is humanity. To make the individual uncomfortable, that is my task.” —Friedrich Nietzsche.
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Vikki Roemer: Three types of guys
“There are three types of guys — the ones who hate nerds (all nerds, that is; girls aren’t let off the hook); the ones who are scared off by girls who are slightly more intelligent than average; and the guys who are also somewhat more intelligent than average, but are so shy that they can’t…
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Al Capone: Bootlegging
“When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on silver trays on Lake Shore Drive, it’s called hospitality.” —Al Capone.
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Wolfgang von Goethe: Life’s golden tree
“My worthy friend, gray are all theories,And green alone Life’s golden tree.” — Wolfgang von Goethe, “Faust, Part 1” (1808), Project Gutenberg translation (2005), updated 2023
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André Gide: One must always start again
“Tout choses sont dites deja, mais comme personne n’ecoute, il faut toujours recommencer.” [All things have already been said, but since no one listens, one must always start again.] —André Gide.
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Francoise Sagan: Living and writing
“I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.” —Francoise Sagan.
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Mark Twain: When angry
“When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.” —Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar.
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Mark Twain: Time to reform
“Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.” —Mark Twain.
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Judith Martin: Civilized
“We are all born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society.” —Judith Martin, “Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behaviour”.
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Lillian Hellman: Since when?
“Since when do we have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?” —Lillian Hellman.
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Larry Wall: Compromise
“We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can’t agree on when it’s necessary to compromise.” —Larry Wall.
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Benjamin Graham: Earning power
“Earning power must always be the chief criterion of stock values — exceeding in importance asset backing, financial condition, and even dividend return. For it is the average rate of earnings which determines the real value of the physical assets, which weakens or strengthens the cash position, and which finally must control the dividend policy.”…
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Blaise Pascal: Two kinds of men
“There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves sinners; the sinners who believe themselves righteous.” —Blaise Pascal.
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Robert Pirsig: Avoid mistakes
“When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf, and takes his dog along to see the sport, he should take care to avoid mistakes. The dog has certain relationships to the wolf the shepherd may have forgotten.” —Robert Pirsig.
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C S Lewis: Most dangerous thing
“Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn…
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C S Lewis: Conscience
“Either we give up trying to be good, or else we become very unhappy indeed. For, make no mistake: if you are really going to try to meet all the demands made on the natural self, it will not have enough left over to live on. The more you obey your conscience, the more your…
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Andy Hunt: Perfect software
“No one in the brief history of computing has ever written a piece of perfect software. It’s unlikely that you’ll be the first.” —Andy Hunt.
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Euripides: Dearer than a daughter
“To a father growing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter.” —Euripides.
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W H Auden: No poet or novelist
“No poet or novelist wishes he was the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted.” —W. H. Auden.
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Bob Marley: Hit me with music
“One good thing about music, Well, it helps you feel no pain. So hit me with music; Hit me with music now.” —Bob Marley.
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C S Lewis: Pretence
“What’s the good of pretending to be what you aren’t? Well, even on the human level, you know, there are two kinds of pretending. There’s a bad kind, where the pretence is there instead of the real thing; as when a man pretends he’s going to help you instead of really helping you. But there’s…
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Joyce Carol Oates: Symbols are inventions
“H. sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.” —Joyce Carol Oates.
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Ambrose Pierce: Fourteen hundred and forty times a day
“You are not permitted to kill a woman who has wronged you, but nothing forbids you to reflect that she is growing older every minute. You are avenged fourteen hundred and forty times a day.” —Ambrose Bierce.
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Marc Andreessen: Good news
“I am here to bring the good news: AI will not destroy the world, and in fact may save it.” —Marc Andreessen.
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Carl Sagan: Extraterrestrial intelligence
‘I’m often asked the question, “Do you think there is extraterrestrial intelligence?” I give the standard arguments — there are a lot of places out there, and use the word *billions*, and so on. And then I say it would be astonishing to me if there weren’t extraterrestrial intelligence, but of course there is as…
