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!

…don’t fall into the trap of thinking that it is your employer’s job to train you. This is your career—you have to take responsibility for it.

— Robert C. Martin, Clean Craftsmanship

The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

— Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird