There is a famous statement by Augustine: If you love God you may do as you please. Alas, it is not so simple. The Spanish inquisitors loved God. The Christians who burned witches loved God. Promoters of the Children’s Crusade loved God. John Calvin loved God when he allowed Servetus to be burned at the stake. Martin Luther loved God when he proposed driving Jews out of Germany. Jephthah loved God when he killed his daughter. Abraham loved God when he was willing to murder his son. Moses loved God when he ordered his soldiers to kill the older women and the male children of the Midianites, but to keep the virgin girls for themselves. In the bloody wars between Christians and Muslims, between Protestants and Catholics, all sides loved God.

— Martin Gardner, The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener

The universality of complex language is a discovery that fills linguists with awe, and is the first reason to suspect that language is not just any cultural invention but the product of a special human instinct.

— Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct

What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary -property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life -don’t be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn’t last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart -and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.

— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

…inequality itself is not morally objectionable; what is objectionable is poverty. If a person lives a long, healthy, pleasurable, and stimulating life, then how much money the Joneses earn, how big their house is, and how many cars they drive are morally irrelevant.

— Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

…two kinds of complexity: Essential complexity is the kind that is inherent in the problem domain. Incidental complexity is the kind that is introduced solely by the solution.

— Jamie Allen, Reactive Design Patterns