Ron's quote collection

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.
			-- H. H. Williams

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to
conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in
the introduction of a new order of things.  Because the innovator has
for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and
only lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.
                        -- Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince, 1513)

The heavy work is getting the problem statement right.
			-- Daniel E. Geer

Es ist nicht gesagt dass es besser wird, wenn es anders wird.  Wenn es
aber besser werden soll, muss es anders werden.  (Loosely translated:
Different is not necessarily better.  But better is necessarily
different.)
			-- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Gower: Why, the enemey is loud; you hear him all night.
Fluellen: If the enemy is an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is
  it meet, think you, that we too should also, look you, be an ass, and
  a fool, and a prating coxcomb?  In your own conscience now?
			-- William Shakespeare (Henry V, Act 4)

This is my quest, to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star
			-- Joe Darion (Man of La Mancha)

Ron's first law: All extreme positions are wrong.
			-- Ron Garret

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot.  C++ makes it harder, but
when you do, it blows away your whole leg.
			-- Bjarne Stroustrup

Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming. 
                        -- C.A.R. Hoare

The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. 
		        -- Geoffrey Chaucer

Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there. 
			-- Sydney J. Harris

Two monks were arguing about a flag.  One said, "The flag is moving." 
The other said, "The wind is moving."  The sixth patriarch, Zeno,
happened to be passing by.  He told them, "Not the wind, not the flag. 
Mind is moving."
			-- Douglas R. Hofstadter

The only thing you learn from history is that no one learns anything
from history.
                        -- Otto Von Habsburg, great-nephew of
                           Archduke Ferdinand whose assassination
                           started World War I

We laugh at that which we cannot bear to face.
                        -- Aristotle

It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students
that have had prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are
mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
                        -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people
can do evil; but for good people to do evil -- that takes religion.
                        -- Steven Weinberg

Some people, when confronted with a [programming] problem, think,
"I know, I'll use regular expressions."  Now they have two problems.
                        -- Jamie Zawinski

A feature is a bug with seniority.
                        -- Dave Bartley

Never try to teach a pig to sing.  It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
                        -- Eric Park

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
                        -- Thomas Jefferson

The cost of eternal vigilance is freedom.
                        -- Crispin Sartwell

Plans are useless, but planning is indispensible.
                        -- Dwight Eisenhower

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
                        -- Constitution of the United States, Amendment IX

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends
on his not understanding it.
                        -- Upton Sinclair

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to
say it.
                        -- Evelyn Beatrice Hall

The most vexing aspect of one's own idiocy is that it does not yield readily
to introspection.
                        -- Ron Garret