Quotes

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias of Egypt)

To put it as simply as I can, these were—with all due allowance for personal anfractuosities—serious men, concerned with real problems of understanding the world even more than with pet ideas or the scoring of points in debate. And this seems, in point of fact, rare. (Howard Stein, "Newtonian Space-Time," Texas Quarterly 10: 174-200).

There are lots of proofs of Bell's theorem in the literature on quantum mechanics, many of them informative only to the authors. (Jeffrey Bub, Bananaworld: Quantum Mechanics for Primates, p. 61).

In much wisdom there is much sorrow, and he who stores up knowledge stores up grief. (from Ecclesiastes).

For, even if the physical development of the theory is not sufficient to put the foundations of the thus achieved knowledge of nature into the sharp light of awareness, still the scientific progress that has been obtained in these theories precisely through the willingness to abandon or revise old familiar concepts provides the guarantee that new and fruitful points of view have been introduced here into research. Only their philosophical interpretation and elaboration will produce clarity concerning both the philosophical arguments for the a-prioricity of natural-philosophical principles and the objections to them arising from the side of physics. (Grete Hermann, "Natural-Philosophical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics", in: Grete Hermann - Between Physics and Philosophy, E. Crull and G. Bacciagaluppi (eds.), Springer 2017).

Man can now fly in the air like a bird, swim under the ocean like a fish, he can burrow into the ground like a mole. Now if only he could walk the earth like a man, this would be paradise. (Tommy Douglas).

In our experience, C has proven to be a pleasant, expressive, and versatile language for a wide variety of programs. It is easy to learn, and it wears well as one's experience with it grows. We hope that this book will help you to use it well. (Brian Kernigan, Dennis Ritchie, The C Programming Language).

In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair! (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring).

What I am furnishing here is the materials for constructing a building; they have been assembled with great difficulty and they are now offered to the critical scrutiny of the expert in the hope that what is serviceable among them may be used to erect an edifice which accords with the rules of durability and harmoniousness. (Immanuel Kant, The Only Possible Argument 2:66).

To give a clearer idea of these minute perceptions which we are unable to pick out from the crowd, I like to use the example of the roaring noise of the sea which impresses itself on us when we are standing on the shore. To hear this noise as we do, we must hear the parts which make up this whole, that is the noise of each wave, although each of these little noises makes itself known only when combined confusedly with all the others, and would not be noticed if the wave which made it were by itself. (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding. Translated by P. Remnant and J. Bennett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 54.).

But when the daughter of Dawn, rosy-fingered Morning,
shone forth, then gathered the folk around glorious Hector's pyre.
First quenched they with bright wine all the burning,
so far as the fire's strength went, and then his brethren and comrades
gathered his white bones lamenting, and big tears flowed down their cheeks.
And the bones they took and laid in a golden urn,
shrouding them in soft purple robes, and straightaway laid the urn
in a hollow grave and piled thereon great close-set stones,
and heaped with speed a barrow, while watchers were set
everywhere around, lest the well-greaved Achaians should
make onset before the time. And when they had heaped the barrow
they went back, and gathered them together and feasted right well
in noble feast at the palace of Priam, Zeus-fostered king.
Thus held they funeral for Hector tamer of horses.
(Homer, The Iliad).

"Legacy code" is a term often used derogatorily to characterize code that is written in a language or style that (1) the speaker/writer consider outdated and/or (2) is competing with something sold/promoted by the speaker/writer. "Legacy code" often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling. (Bjarne Stroustrop).

For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out. (from Deuteronomy).

Do you pine for the nice days of minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying to cut your teeth on an OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you finding it frustrating when everything works on minix? No more all-nighters to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just for you :-) (Linus Torvalds).

... Yea, and if some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark
deep, even so I will endure, with a heart within me patient
of affliction. For already have I suffered full much, and much
have I toiled in perils of waves and war; let this be added to
the tale of those.
(The Odyssey, Book V)

Then the Lord said, "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will be passing by." A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing the rocks before the Lord—but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire—but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance to the cave. A voice said to him, "Elijah, why are you here?" (from 1 Kings).

Cyclops, if any one of mortal men shall ask thee of the
unsightly blinding of thine eye, say that it was Odysseus
that blinded it, the waster of cities, son of Laertes,
whose dwelling is in Ithaca.
(The Odyssey, Book IX)

Now if 6 turned out to be 9
I don't mind.
If all the hippies cut off all of their hair
I don't care
'cause I got my own world to live through
and I ain't gonna copy you. (James Marshall Hendrix, "If 6 was 9").

This day is called the Feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day and comes safe home
Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is named
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall see this day and live t'old age
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours
And say, 'Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars
And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familliar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son,
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by
From this day to the ending of the world
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition.
And gentleman in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(William Shakespeare, Henry V).

He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. (John 13:1).