In chess, as in life, rules must often be swept aside.
Irving Chernev

The mark of a person who is in control of consciousness is the ability to focus attention at will,
to be oblivious to distractions, to concentrate for as long as it takes to achieve a goal, and not longer.
And the person who can do this usually enjoys the normal course of everyday life.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow

You can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don’t burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance —
First you’ve got to last…
Neil Peart (Marathon - Rush)

Nous sommes des nains juchés sur les épaules de géants.
Nous voyons ainsi davantage et plus loin qu'eux, non parce que notre vue est plus aiguë ou notre taille plus haute, mais parce qu'ils nous portent en l'air et nous élèvent de toute leur hauteur gigantesque.
(We are dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants,
so we see more and more than they do, not because our sight is sharper or our height higher, but because they carry us up and we raise their gigantic height)
Bernard de Chartres

You can catch a monkey by burying a narrow-mouthed jar of nuts in the ground.
A monkey comes along, pits his paw into the jar and grabs a handful of nuts, but the mouth of the jar is too narrow to let him withdraw his clenched fist.
The monkey is unwilling to let go of the nuts and so is trapped.
You too can be trapped by not letting go of your beliefs, opinions, worries and anxieties.
Michael Michalko - Thinkertoys

The quality of our mental models determines whether the code we write does what we expect it to do.
And that translates directly into avoiding bugs and meeting deadlines.
The more effective our models, the more work we're able to get done.
Avdi Grimm

Don't write things you don't believe.
And write them carefully.
And write them knowing that, you're not to write them unless you're willing to stand behind them.
Then understand that if you're called to stand behind them,
That is in fact how you will become educated.
Jordan Peterson

Bugs are like water leaks. If you leave them too long, they can spoil your merchandise and slow down your business.
Sam Hatoum

Fear is the path to the dark side.
Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering.
Master Yoda - Star Wars Universe

No code runs faster than no code.
No code has fewer bugs than no code.
No code uses less memory than no code.
No code is easier to understand than no code.
Mike Perham

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!
The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters

Examine and interrogate your motivations, reject the money if you dare, and startup something useful. Curb your ambition. Live happily ever after.
David Heinemeier Hansson

Felicidade é somente acordar quando os olhos abrem.
(Happiness is waking up only when your eyes open.)
Julia Gostkorzewicz

Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.
Martin Fowler

Building an object-oriented application means inventing appropriate machinery. We represent real-world information, processes, interactions, relationships, even errors, by inventing objects that don't exist in the real world. We give life and intelligence to inanimate things. We take difficult-to-comprehend real-world objects and split them into simpler, more manageable software ones. We invent new objects. Each has a specific role to play in the application. Our measure of success lies in how clearly we invent a software reality that satisfies our application's requirements -- and not in how closely it remembers the real world.
Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Object Design

If we accept that we reflect values into code whether we want or not, we can't look into the monitor. We have to look into the mirror. If we can be mindful of the values we reflect into our code; if we can approach our craft with humility and an understanding of our limitations; if we can admit that cleverness is no substitute for compassion; if we can acknowledge that we always have a perspective and it is only one of many perspectives; if we can embrace ambiguity; if we can view our designs as a conversation rather than a declaration; if we can bring these human values to our code, we stand a chance of bringing soul to software.
Avdi Grimm, The Soul of Software