"[Innovation] ... is about understanding our past because that is the pieces we use to build our future."
Andrew B. Hargadon quoted in an interview by Ubiquity in the article The Trouble with Out-of-the-Box Thinking
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, Technology and the Future
"In my own experience of designing difficult algorithms, I find a certain
technique most helpful in expanding my own capabilities. After solving a
challenging problem, I solve it again from scratch, retracing only the
insight of the earlier solution. I repeat this until the solution is as clear
and direct as I can hope for. Then I look for a general rule for attacking
similar problems, that would have led me to approach the given problem in the
most efficient way the first time. Often, such a rule is of permanent value."
Robert W. Floyd, The Paradigms of Programming, 1978 ACM Turing Award Lecture.
"For we've come to see the power of nonviolence. We've come to see that this
method is not a weak method, for it's the strong man who can stand up amid
opposition, who can stand up amid violence being inflicted upon him
and not retaliate with violence."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Address at the Freedom Rally in Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan
23 June 1963
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
...
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Dylan Thomas,
Excerpt from Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, 1951
"Software is a place where dreams are planted and nightmares harvested,
where terrible demons compete with magical panaceas,
a world of werewolves and silver bullets."
Brad J. Cox,
"Plannning the Software Industrial Revolution", IEEE Software, Nov. 1990
OBERON
Now, until the break of day,
Through this house each fairy stray.
To the best bride-bed will we,
Which by us shall blessed be;
And the issue there create
Ever shall be fortunate.
So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be;
And the blots of Nature's hand
Shall not in their issue stand;
Never mole, hare lip, nor scar,
Nor mark prodigious, such as are
Despised in nativity,
Shall upon their children be.
With this field-dew consecrate,
Every fairy take his gait;
And each several chamber bless,
Through this palace, with sweet peace;
And the owner of it blest
Ever shall in safety rest.
Trip away; make no stay;
Meet me all by break of day. 		PUCK
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act 5, Scene I
"And if I did not make mistakes
And give too brief a thought to heavy questions
And too much time to little matter;
...
And my brow was never crossed with lines of pain;
If all this endless summer were my lot
And winter's fury never beat me back,
Then I never would have seen the stormy nights
Through which I've struggled, fought and won;
I never would have known the joy of needed comfort given,
Or the essence of a friend."

Katie Paton,
Excerpt from "And If I Did Not Make Mistakes", 2000.
"May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always understand.

May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation with courage and optimism.
...
May the teachings of those you admire
become part of you,
so that you may call upon them. 		...
May you find enough inner strength
to determine your own worth by yourself,
and not be dependent
on another's judgment of your accomplishments.

May you always feel loved."

Sandra Sturtz Hauss,
Excerpt from "These Are My Wishes For You", 2000.
"May you find serenity and tranquility
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
...
I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human. 		...
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments."

Oriah Mountain Dreamer,
Excerpt from "The Invitation", 1995.
"We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
...
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter 		In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
...
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it."

Maya Angelou,
Excerpts from "A Brave and Startling Truth", 1995.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is
a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of
thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death
diminishes me because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
John Donne
MEDITATION XVII Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
"Humor is a way of holding off how awful life can be, to protect yourself."
Kurt Vonnegut, A Man without a Country
"Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. And most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened."
Sir Winston Churchill
"Tell me, I forget, show me, I remember, involve me, I understand."
Benjamin Franklin
"Good teaching is 1/4 preperation and 3/4 pure theatre."
Gail Godwin
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Where do we go from here: Chaos or community?
"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."
Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
Sir Winston Churchill