“God” is just the name we give to the protean creative principle that generates and enforces teleology, or equivalently, that Entity whose “Will” equals teleology. Since this is the same entity whose self-structuring operations are guided by teleology, namely reality, we have a measure of equivalence between reality and God.

— Christopher Michael Langan and Chris Langan, The Art of Knowing

Remember your math: an anecdote is not a trend. Remember your history: the fact that something is bad today doesn’t mean it was better in the past. Remember your philosophy: one cannot reason that there’s no such thing as reason, or that something is true or good because God said it is. And remember your psychology: much of what we know isn’t so, especially when our comrades know it too.

— Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

The counter-culture of the 1960’s, like may other idealistic movements, failed because it did so much preaching from a morally one-up position when nobody had been imprinted or conditioned to accept it as one-up.

— Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising

…some of our most common tools are more like anchors than propellers.

— Tom DeMarco, Tim Lister, Peopleware

Coupling, like the Lego piece in the night, often isn’t obvious until you step on it.

— Kent Beck, Tidy First?