Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities. Strengthen the individual. Start with yourself. Take care with yourself. Define who you are. Refine your personality. Choose your destination and articulate your Being. As the great nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche so brilliantly noted, “He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.”

— Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life

Great designs come from great designers. Software construction is a creative process. Sound methodology can empower and liberate the creative mind; it cannot enflame or inspire the drudge.

— Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month

We’ll get security when people decide it’s important enough. They say it’s important, but the evidence is people don’t think it’s important enough to pay for. If it’s important enough, vendors will pay attention to it. It doesn’t matter what people say if they’re not willing to spend extra for it, cash and cycles and memory and things like that.

— Federico Biancuzzi, Masterminds of Programming

When I wrote TeX originally in 1977 and ‘78, of course I didn’t have literate programming but I did have structured programming. I wrote it in a big notebook in longhand, in pencil.

— Peter Seibel, Coders at Work

We can’t control outcomes in any sphere of life. All you can do – and therefore the only responsibility you have – is to put in the time and effort: into relationships, parenting, finding happiness, whatever. The actual result, in a profound sense, is none of your business.

— Oliver Burkeman, Help!