Quite a Quote!

William Congreve: Music

“Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” —–William Congreve.
Stendhal: Shepherd’s sheep

“The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.”—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle).
Ted Gioia: Choice of spouse

“A person’s choice of a spouse—or if they aren’t married, their closest lifelong partner—is much more revealing than anything they say or do in public. This choice tells you about their own innermost longings, expectations, and needs. It tells you what they think of themselves, and what they think they deserve in life (or will […]
Cordelia Fine: Unconscious

“Never forget that your unconscious is smarter than you, faster than you, and more powerful than you. It may even control you. You will never know all of its secrets.”— Cordelia Fine.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: God playing the fool

“Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. It seems as if heaven had sent its insane angels into our world as to an asylum. And here they will break out into their native music, and utter at intervals the words they have heard in heaven; then the mad fit returns, […]
Brené Brown: Comparison
Brené Brown: Disembodied
Brené Brown: Anxiety and excitement
Federico Fellini: Autobiographical

“All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” —-Federico Fellini.
David Evans: Good coffee

“I know testers who make good devs. I know devs who make good testers. I know Scrum Masters who make good coffee.” —David Evans.
Howard Marks: Risk, return

“For the last 45 years, and I think for the rest of time, we don’t think of ‘Good idea, bad idea.’ We think ‘Risk, return. Risk, return.’ How risky is it? Is the promised return adequate to compensate for the risk?” —Howard Marks
Howard Marks: Coming years not similarly easy

“We’ve gone through an easy period for the last 14 years, and I believe that the coming period will be a harder period. Not a cataclysm. Not a depression. But I think people don’t recognize that the last 14 years have been unusually easy. And I believe that the coming years will not be similarly […]
Janis Joplin: Home alone

“On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone.” —-Janis Joplin.
Montesquieu: French

“If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman … because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.” —-Montesquieu.
Niccolo Machiavelli: Satisfied with appearances

“For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.” —Niccolo Machiavelli
Benjamin Franklin: Little strokes fell great oaks

“Little Strokes, Fell great oaks.” —Benjamin Franklin.
Peter Bernstein: Humility

“Humility is an enormously important quality. You can’t win without it. Survival in the end is where the winners are by definition, and survival begins with humility.” —Peter Bernstein.
Margaret Courtney: Innocent glee

“Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young, / Who loved thee so fondly as he? / He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, / And joined in thy innocent glee.” —Margaret Courtney.
Herman Melville: Puzzle

“As, in a Chinese puzzle, many pieces are hard to place, so there are some unfortunate fellows who can never slip into their proper angles, and thus the whole puzzle becomes a puzzle indeed, which is the precise condition of the greatest puzzle in the world — this man-of-war world itself.” — Herman Melville.
Thomas Kuhn: Puzzle-solving ability

“Like any other value, puzzle-solving ability proves equivocal in application…. But the behavior of a community which makes it preeminent will be very different from that of one which does not.” — Thomas Kuhn.
Huang Binhong: Cleverness and stupidity

“To understand that cleverness can lead to stupidity is to be close to the ways of Heaven.” — Huang Binhong.
Mary H K Choi: Fall early, reach early

“It doesn’t get any less scary. All that happens is that you have less life left. It helps if you do your falling early, and it really helps if you do your reaching early.”— Mary H.K. Choi.
Theodore Roosevelt: No substitute for elemental virtues

“Though conditions have grown puzzling in their complexity, though changes have been vast, yet we may remain absolutely sure of one thing; that now as ever in the past, and as it will ever be in the future, there can be no substitute for elemental virtues, for the elemental qualities to which we allude when […]
Bella Lewitzky: Deeply rooted

“To move freely you must be deeply rooted.” —Bella Lewitzky.
Tom Dale: Purely based on popularity

“If you are choosing a JavaScript library purely based on popularity, I think you deserve what you get.” —-Tom Dale.
Haruki Murakami: Memories

“People’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.” —-Haruki Murakami.
Eric Hoffer: Inert coagulum

“The conservatism of a religion – it’s orthodoxy – is the inert coagulum of a once highly reactive sap.” — Eric Hoffer
Danny Thorpe: Programming

“Programming without an overall architecture or design in mind is like exploring a cave with only a flashlight: You don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going, and you don’t know quite where you are.” – Danny Thorpe.
Abraham Joshua Heschel: Admire kind people

“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.” —Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Dr. Seuss: Any direction you choose