Legend has it that while drinking wine in a boat on the river, 8th century Chinese poet Li Po tried to grab the moon’s reflection on the surface and tumbled in, which is probably the poet’s equivalent of dying bravely in battle.

— Matthew White and Steven Pinker, Atrocities

…if I were suddenly to discover that my life was lived in a computer simulation, I would be in bits.

— Philosophy Now, Anja Publications

An insecure need for obedience is the opposite of natural authority.

— Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister, Peopleware

You can dismiss any claim of an ability to improve productivity by more than 25 percent per year out of hand as a silver-bullet claim.

— Steve McConnell, Rapid Development

…the medium that remains after all your rigid bans may well turn out to be flexible enough to fashion precisely the items you’ve banned.

— Douglas R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop