I suspect that they put Socrates to death because there is something terribly unattractive, alienating, and nonhuman in thinking with too much clarity.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes

Given the pipe wrench, produce the words for that wrench and no other; given the words, produce the wrench. That, Bush taught his students, was the beginning of engineering.

— Jimmy Soni, Rob Goodman, A Mind at Play

As with any show of appreciation, it’s the thought that counts. Be sure that your rewards say “appreciation” rather than “incentive” or “manipulation.”

— Steve McConnell, Rapid Development

Like the sunlight and the firelight that guided our birth, we need a unified humanities and science to construct a full and honest picture of what we truly are and what we can become.

— Edward O. Wilson, The Origins of Creativity

Consider how the syntax of Java has changed since the late ’90s. Think about the bizarre syntax of generics and the bolted-on feel of lambdas. At some point, these languages simply collapse in on themselves in an implosion of arcane grammar and syntax that obscures the simple intentions of the programmers.

— Robert C. Martin, We, Programmers