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Quotes

This page serves as a collection of my favorite quotes.


Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.

Laurence J. Peter

Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher.1)

Antoine de Saint Exupéry


My point today is that, if we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as “lines produced” but as “lines spent”: the current conventional wisdom is so foolish as to book that count on the wrong side of the ledger.

Edsger W. Dijkstra

I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.

Blaise Pascal


I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

Bjarne Stroustrup

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

Bertrand Russell


“The Barber's Speech”.2)

Charlie Chaplin

I have found that most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Abraham Lincoln


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

United States Declaration of Independence3)

As therefore the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty.

John Locke4)

1) It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.