-
Eric Ries: System as a whole
“That which optimizes one part of the system necessarily undermines the system as a whole.” —Eric Ries.
-
James Thurber: Seeing is deceiving
“Seeing is deceiving. It’s eating that’s believing.” —James Thurber.
-
Evelyn Beatrice Hall: Goodness in the world
“There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.” —Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
-
Enid Blyton: Leave something for someone
“Leave something for someone but don’t leave someone for something.”—Enid Blyton, Five on a Hike Together (Famous Five, #10).
-
Henri Frederic Amiel: Equally outraged by silence
“Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.” —Henri Frederic Amiel.
-
Howard Marks: Unrealistic expectation
“It would be wonderful to be able to successfully predict the swings of the pendulum and always move in the appropriate direction, but this is certainly an unrealistic expectation. We consider it far more reasonable to try to (1) stay alert for occasions when a market has reached an extreme, (2) adjust our behavior slightly…
-
Ron Jeffries: Code never lies
“Code never lies, comments sometimes do.” —Ron Jeffries.
-
T S Eliot: Hollow men
“The Hollow Men: Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the shadow.” —T.S. Eliot.
-
Mark Twain: Watch that basket
‘Behold, the fool saith, “Put not all thine eggs in the one basket”—which is but a manner of saying, “Scatter your money and your attention;” but the wise man saith, “Put all your eggs in the one basket and—WATCH THAT BASKET.”‘—Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar.
-
William Faulkner: Illusion
“No battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.” —William Faulkner.
-
Horace Walpole: Greater things
“Men are often capable of greater things than they perform. They are sent into the world with bills of credit and seldom draw to their full extent.” —Horace Walpole.
-
James L Collymore: In time
“I began many years ago, as so many young men do, in searching for the perfect woman. I believed that if I looked long enough, and hard enough, I would find her and then I would be secure for life. Well, the years and romances came and went, and I eventually ended up settling for…
-
Lord Chesterfield: Learning
“Learning is acquired by reading books; but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading man, and studying all the various editions of them.” —Lord Chesterfield.
-
Marissa Meyer: Verbal ability
“Beyond basic mathematical aptitude, the difference between good programmers and great programmers is verbal ability.” —Marissa Meyer.
-
Stephen King: Get up and go to work
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” —Stephen King.
-
Marcus Aurelius: Consequences of anger and grief
“How much more harmful are the consequences of anger and grief than the circumstances that aroused them in us!” —Marcus Aurelius.
-
Indira Raman: Secret to happiness
“Because the brain grades on a curve, endlessly comparing the present with what came just before, the secret to happiness may be unhappiness. Not unmitigated unhappiness, but the transient chill that lets us feel warmth, the sensation of hunger that makes satiety so welcome, the period of near-despair that catapults us into the astonishing experience…
-
Upton Sinclair: Difficult
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” —Upton Sinclair.
-
Howard Marks: Penalizing the last to join
“Most trends—both bullish and bearish—eventually become overdone, profiting those who recognize them early but penalizing the last to join. That’s the reasoning behind my number one investment adage: ‘What the wise man does in the beginning, the fool does in the end.’ The ability to resist excesses is rare, but it’s an important attribute of…
-
Benjamin Disraeli: Magic of first love
“The magic of our first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.” —Benjamin Disraeli.
-
Steven Pinker: Unrelentingly offensive
“[Film and theater critic John] Simon has simply discovered the trick used with great effectiveness by certain comedians, talk show hosts and punk rock musicians: people of modest talent can attract attention, at least for a while, by being unrelentingly offensive.” —Steven Pinker.
-
Luc de Clapiers: Perfection of a clock
“The perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.” —Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues.
-
Otto von Bismarck: In principle
“When you say that you agree to a thing in principle, you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.” —Otto Von Bismarck.
-
Scott James Remnant: “Stable” to “wobbly”
“I’m personally quite happy with one stable release every two years, and am of the opinion that trying to release more will mean we’ll have to rename the distro from “stable” to “wobbly”.’ —Scott James Remnant.
-
Ken Kesey: Laugh
“You have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.” —Ken Kesey.
-
Margaret Thatcher: Walking over the Thames
“If my critics saw me walking over the Thames, they would say it was because I couldn’t swim.” — Margaret Thatcher.
-
Robert Firth: Lacking zero
“One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.” —Robert Firth.
-
R Buckminster Fuller: Give them a tool
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.”―R. Buckminster Fuller.
-
Agatha Christie: Curious thought
“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.” —Agatha Christie.
-
P D James: Not by the self-regarding
“The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves.” —-P.D. James.
-
Sydney J Harris: Elitism
“Elitism is the slur directed at merit by mediocrity.” —Sydney J. Harris.
-
Georg Lichtenberg: Advantage
“He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage — he won’t encounter many rivals.” —Georg Lichtenberg, Aphorisms.
-
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach: Spurned pity
“Spurned pity can turn into cruelty just as spurned love turns into hate.” —Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach.
-
H L Mencken: Zoos
“All zoos actually offer the public, in return for the taxes spent upon them, is a form of idle witless amusement, compared to which a visit to the state penitentiary, or even a state legislature in session, is informing, stimulating, and ennobling.” —H.L. Mencken.
-
Howard Marks: Active management
“Active management has to be seen as the search for mistakes.” —Howard Marks.
-
David Swansen: Fundamental purpose of rebalancing
“The fundamental purpose of rebalancing lies in controlling risk, not enhancing return.” —David Swensen.
-
O Henry: Straw vote
“A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.” —O. Henry.
-
Brendan O’Brien: Internet of Things
“If you think that the internet has changed your life, think again. The Internet of Things is about to change it all over again!” —Brendan O’Brien.
-
Lao Tzu: Direction
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” —Lao Tzu.
-
Peter Kaufman: Same results
“If you do what everyone else is doing, you shouldn’t be surprised to get the same results everyone else is getting.” —Peter Kaufman.
-
Cyril Connolly: Card indexes
“Our memories are card indexes consulted and then returned in disorder by authorities whom we do not control.” —Cyril Connolly.
-
L Docquier: Animals not as stupid
“The animals are not as stupid as one thinks — they have neither doctors nor lawyers.” —L. Docquier.
-
Gloria Steinem: Men we wanted to marry
“Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry.” —Gloria Steinem.
-
Claude Pepper: Next generation
“If more politicians in this country were thinking about the next generation instead of the next election, it might be better for the United States and the world.” —Claude Pepper.
