Past the asceticism of discipline for the sake of excellence is the discipline of going eyeball to eyeball with reality, letting our fantasies about ourselves die a quiet death.

— Zena Hitz, Lost in Thought

The professional kiss of death for an expert is to act like one.

— Andy Hunt, Pragmatic Thinking and Learning

What’s left unsaid is as much a part of any narrative as what’s included.

— Ali Almossawi and Alejandro Giraldo, An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language

…nothing prevents us of course from remaining optimistic, but this is more an act of faith than having any basis in reason.

— Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought

Other than when you are very close to a deadline, however, you should not put off refactoring because you haven’t got time. Experience with several projects has shown that a bout of refactoring results in increased productivity. Not having enough time usually is a sign that you need to do some refactoring.

— Martin Fowler, Kent Beck, John Brant, William Opdyke, Don Roberts, and Erich Gamma, Refactoring