You are an uncivilized, ignorant, BARBARIC peasant that will be looked back upon by future generations with every bit as much pity as you regard the plague-ridden wretches of Downtown Medieval Europe.

— Subgenius Foundation, Book of the Subgenius

But psychologists have shown that power corrupts our mental processes almost at once. When a feeling of power is induced in people, they are less likely to take others’ viewpoint and more likely to center their thinking on themselves. The result is a reduced ability to comprehend how others see, think, and feel. Power, among other things, induces blindness toward others.

— Robert Trivers, The Folly of Fools

It was estimated in 1993 that there had been over 1000 high-level languages invented and implemented since the beginning of the 1950s.

— Charles Petzold, Code

“Without commerce, advanced social orders can’t evolve, so we’re stuck in the primitive state where every nerd fabricates everything from first principles.”

— Federico Biancuzzi, <Masterminds of Programming

There are two ways to get a rigid design: Make too many assumptions about the future. Write code without enough design.

— Max Kanat-Alexander, Code Simplicity