All Entries in the "Quotes" Category
Quoteworthy: George Orwell on “Scrupulous Writing”
“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?”
Politics and the English Language, 1946
— George Orwell
Quoteworthy: Dave West – Agility is Responsiveness to Change
There isn’t just one agile: “Agile” is really the ability to respond to change in the most effective way, considering the restraints of the environment in which you’re working.
- Dave West
Quoteworthy: John D. Rockefeller Jr.
The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.
- John D. Rockefeller
Quoteworthy: Blaine Lee
Before you attempt to set things right, make sure you see things right.
- Blaine Lee
Quotable: Arnold Toynbee
Apathy can be overcome by enthusiasm, and enthusiasm can be aroused by two things: first, an idea which takes the imagination by storm; and second, a definite, intelligible plan for carrying that idea into action.
- Arnold Toynbee
Quoteworthy: The bitterness of poor quality
The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of meeting the schedule has been forgotten.
– Anonymous
Quoteworthy: Karl Popper
It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.
- Karl Popper
Quoteworthy: Kulak & Guinney
An appropriate and complete requirements specification does nothing to ensure a successful implementation; however, it makes it possible.
- Kulak & Guinney
Quoteworthy: Joseph Joubert
Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make more clear.
- Joseph Joubert
Quotable: Whitney Young
It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.
- Whitney Young
Quoteworthy: Jim Brosseau
There will never be “the right approach” for all projects. Software projects come in too many shapes and sizes. There are too many cultures, and just too many reasons for developing software, even within individual organizations. There is no Holy Grail, but many approaches can be “a reasonable approach,” depending on the situation.
- Jim Brosseau [...]
Quoteworthy: Alistair Cockburn
Agile … is an attitude, not a technique with boundaries. An attitude has no boundaries, so we wouldn’t ask “can I use agile here”, but rather “how would I act in the agile way here?” or “how agile can we be, here?”
- Alistair Cockburn
Quotable: Herbert Kaufman
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage ‘coaches’ ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.
- Herbert Kaufman
Quoteworthy: H.L. Mencken on Simple Solutions to Complex Problems
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- H.L. Mencken
Quoteworthy: Leadership
A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.
- Unknown
Quoteworthy: Douglas Adams
I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.
- Douglas Adams
Quoteworthy: Margaret Fuller
If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.
- Margaret Fuller
Quoteworthy: Margot Fonteyn
The most important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative, and the second disastrous.
- Margot Fonteyn
Quoteworthy: Erik Christopher Zeeman
Technical skill is mastery of complexity while creativity is mastery of simplicity.
- Erik Christopher Zeeman
Quoteworthy: Abraham Lincoln
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
- Abraham Lincoln
Quoteworthy: Seymour Papert
Anything is easy, if you can assimilate it to your collection of models.
- Seymour Papert
Quoteworthy: Thomas Edison
There is a better way to do it; find it.
- Thomas Edison
Quoteworthy: Gustavus F. Swift
Don’t let the best you have done so far be the standard for the rest of your life.
- Gustavus F. Swift