Quotes I like

Fair warning: This is a casual collection of quotes I find interesting or inspiring. I'm sharing these quotes because they spoke to me, but I haven't fact-checked attributions or verified exact wording, so there may be inaccuracies. Consider this more of a "things that resonated with me" list. They're shared here simply because I find them meaningful or thought-provoking.

Education

I have always liked the concept of universities as they were in Ancient Greece, where folks who had something cool to say would just come and say it. It wasn't about recognition; the impetus was the thought that you were resonating with ideas.

-- Professor Donald E. Knuth

If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.

-- Frank Zappa

An "expert" is someone who knows different things to you, not necessarily more things.

-- User 'Killer42' on bytes.com

Information wants to be free

-- Stewart Brand

The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.

-- Socrates

I know that I know nothing. 

-- Socrates

Startups & Entrepreneurship

"Running a start-up is like eating glass. You just start to like the taste of your own blood."

-- Sean Parker

"Almost all startups are fragile initially. And that's one of the biggest things inexperienced founders and investors (and reporters and know-it-alls on forums) get wrong about them. They unconsciously judge larval startups by the standards of established ones. They're like someone looking at a newborn baby and concluding "there's no way this tiny creature could ever accomplish anything"...It's harmless if reporters and know-it-alls dismiss your startup. They always get things wrong. It's even ok if investors dismiss your startup; they'll change their minds when they see growth. The big danger is that you'll dismiss your startup yourself."

-- Paul Graham

"Without profits, you may pretend it is in your hands but it is not. Your destiny is controlled by your ability to constantly raise money. Because somebody has to fund the losses, right? Losses don’t get funded by miracles."

-- Kothandaraman Vaitheeswaran

Our job, the reason we have time to read blogs at work or go to conferences or write memos is that our organization believes that just maybe, we'll find and share a new idea, or maybe (continuing a run on sentence) we'll invent something important, find a resource or connect with a key customer in a way that matters.

-- Seth Godin

Hiring

"What the industry needs is a way to screen candidates by looking at their actual ability, not where they went to school or worked in the past."

-- blog.triplebyte.com

So the first employee was our first engineer, I think we looked for him for four or five months. I probably looked through thousands of people and interviewed hundreds of people.

-- Brian Chesky

Innovation & Work

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

-- Steve Jobs

The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

-- Steve Jobs

You have a problem, so you decide to raise some money.

Now you have two problems.

So you hire some people.

Now you have three problems.

-- Sam Altman

We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.

-- Steve Jobs

We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?

-- Steve Jobs

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.

-- Steve Jobs

Mindset

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

-- Steve Jobs

"If everything seems under control, then you're not going fast enough"

-- Mario Andretti

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.

-- Tom Peters

Choices are an illusion used to control the imperfection of mankind.

-- User 'Ciary' on bytes.com

The unexamined life is not worth living.

-- Socrates

There’s a phrase in Buddhism, ‘Beginner’s mind.’ It’s wonderful to have a beginner’s mind.

-- Steve Jobs

Of course life is bizarre, the more bizarre it gets, the more interesting it is. The only way to approach it is to make yourself some popcorn and enjoy the show.

-- David Gerrold

Witty

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.

-- Albert Einstein

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

-- Frank Zappa

The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.

-- Albert Einstein

Design & Creativity

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

-- Albert Einstein

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. 

-- Steve Jobs

Identity

I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird.

-- Frank Zappa

I get people who tell me that i should be nice. And then when I try to explain to them that maybe you're nice, maybe you should be more aggressive, they see that as me being not nice.

-- Linus Torvalds

I mean business when I say I’ll take anyone on who wants to fight me. You think you can take me, I’ll pay to rent a boxing ring and beat your fucking ass legally.

-- Zed Shaw

Analogy

Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.

-- Clifford Stoll

Programming / Open Source

"That code is not free enough for us to use, and therefore we don't use it."

-- Theo De Raadt on kerneltrap-openbsd