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Lin Yutang: Small men, big shadows
“When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.” —Lin Yutang.
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Sense of the beautiful
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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John Lennon: Living life in peace
“Imagine there’s no countries, / It isn’t hard to do. / Nothing to kill or die for, / And no religion, too. / Imagine all the people / Living life in peace.” —John Lennon.
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Terry Baker: Completeness
“A program is never less than 90% complete, and never more than 95% complete.” —Terry Baker.
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John W Gardner: Excellence
“We must learn to honor excellence in every socially accepted human activity, however humble the activity, and to scorn shoddiness, however exalted the activity. An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it…
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Guido van Rossum: Read much more often
“Code is read much more often than it is written.” —Guido van Rossum.
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Desmond Tutu: Neutrality and injustice
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” —Desmond Tutu.
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Jilly Cooper: Domestic animal
“The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.”—Jilly Cooper.
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Allan Rufus: Life is like a sandwich!
“Life is like a sandwich! Birth as one slice, and death as the other. What you put in-between the slices is up to you. Is your sandwich tasty or sour?” —Allan Rufus.
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David Brin: Power attracts the corruptible
‘It’s said that “power corrupts”, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.’ —David Brin.
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Jane Jacobs: Cities
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody only when they are created by everybody.” —JANE JACOBS.
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Doris Lessing: Only one way to read
“There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag – and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or…
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Paul Smith: What we expect to find
“What we see in people is determined, in large part, by what we expect to find.” —Paul Smith.
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Patricia Routledge: Spinsters
“People have always pitied spinsters. We have been derided, as if we had missed out on life.” —Patricia Routledge.
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Gore Vidal: Bring truth back
“Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.” —Gore Vidal.
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Knowledge grows by subtraction
“So knowledge grows by subtraction much more than by addition – given that what we know today might turn out to be wrong but what we know to be wrong cannot turn out to be right, at least not easily.” —Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
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Jane Goodall: Hope is often misunderstood
“Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.” —Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.
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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: When I despair
“When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always.” —Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
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Larry Wall: One line or 80 columns?
“You want it in one line? Does it have to fit in 80 columns?” —Larry Wall.
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Mark Twain: Prehistoric toads
“It is easy to find fault, if one has that disposition. There was once a man who, not being able to find any other fault with his coal, complained that there were too many prehistoric toads in it.” —Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates: Racism
“Racism tends to attract attention when it’s flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping — positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry; they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want…
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Mark Twain: Fluid prejudice
“The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.” —Mark Twain.
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Miguel de Cervantes: Offspring of the mind
“No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.” —Miguel de Cervantes.
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Jim Lovell: Be thankful for problems
“Be thankful for problems. If they were less difficult, someone with less ability might have your job.” —Jim Lovell.
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Alberto Brandolini: Developer’s misunderstanding
“It’s the developer’s misunderstanding, not the expert knowledge, that gets released in production.” —Alberto Brandolini.
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T S Eliot: Harm
“Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them.” —T.S. Eliot.
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Will Rogers: Everything is funny
“Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.” —Will Rogers.
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Yahia Lababidi: We all have handicaps
“We all have handicaps. The difference is that some of us must reveal ours, while others must conceal theirs, to be treated with mercy.” —Yahia Lababidi.
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Colin Powell: Healthiest competition
“The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above-average effort.” —Colin Powell.
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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.
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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: Thirsty for comrades
“In a world that’s become a desert, we were thirsty for comrades; the taste of bread broken amongst comrades made us accept the values of war. But we don’t need war to find the warmth that comes when walking together…towards the same goal.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars.
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Bruce Springsteen: Blind faith
“Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed.” —Bruce Springsteen.
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J R R Tolkien: All that is gold
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” — JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring.
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Lord Chesterfield: Wrongs and contempt
“Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever.” —Lord Chesterfield.
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Will Rogers: Diplomats
“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it.” —Will Rogers.
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Santosh Desai: Things do work
“When we take rules and norms seriously things do work. Our airports stay clean, even the toilets are free of odour and the metro works. Here the system takes itself seriously. It believes in its own rules and the rest of us follow. We often complain about the lack of civic discipline, but the real…
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William James: Pessimism
“Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.” —William James.–
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George Bernard Shaw: End to end
“If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.” —George Bernard Shaw.
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Zubeen Garg: Embrace today’s challenges
“Embrace today’s challenges, for they are the stepping stones to tomorrow’s success.” —Zubeen Garg.
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Oksana Zabuzhko: What power really is
“This is what power really is: the privilege of ignoring anything you might find distasteful.” —Oksana Zabuzhko.
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Lao Tzu: Failure is an opportunity
“Failure is an opportunity. If you blame someone else, there is no end to the blame. Therefore the Master fulfills her own obligations and corrects her own mistakes.” —Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching.
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Samuel Johnson: Poetry
“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.” —Samuel Johnson.
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W Clement Stone: Aim for the moon
“Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.” —W. Clement Stone.
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Robert Redford: Cynical optimist
“I am a cynical optimist. Big opening weekends are like cotton candy. The films you will remember over time are the films that stick in the consciousness of the audience in a good way.” —Robert Redford.
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Laurence J Peter: Waving the flag
“The man who is always waving the flag usually waives what it stands for.” —Laurence J. Peter.
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Robert Redford: Defense of our resources
“I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?” —Robert Redford.
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Napoleon Bonaparte: More noise
“Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.” —Napoleon Bonaparte.
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Francis, duc le La Rochefoucauld: Love
“There is no disguise that can for long conceal love where it exists or simulate it where it does not.” —Francois, duc de La Rochefoucauld.
