Quotes

Writing computer software is one of the purest creative activities in the history of the human race.
—John Ousterhout, A Philosophy of Software Design, 2018

You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
—Abraham Lincoln

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
—Goodhart’s Law

庭有枇杷树，吾妻死之年所手植也，今已亭亭如盖矣。
—归有光，《项脊轩志》，1524

假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。
—曹雪芹，《红楼梦》，1763

When the lie is taken as truth, the truth becomes a lie; when the fiction is taken as fact, the fact becomes a fiction.
—Translation by Yi Wang

如果你站在四岁的O的位置瞻望未来，你会说她前途未卜，你会说她前途无限，要是你站在她的终点看这个生命的轨迹你看到的只是一条路，你就只能看见一条命定之途。所有的生命都一样，所有的人都是这样。
—史铁生，《务虚笔记》，1996

If you stand at the position of a four-year-old O and look into the future, you would say her future is uncertain, you would say her future is limitless. But if you stand at her endpoint and look at the trajectory of her life, you would see only one path, a predetermined path. All lives are the same, all people are like this.

Sensible, not sensitive; simply complicated; predictably irrational; kindly demanding; constructively critical; certain of uncertainty; managing risks; helplessly hopeful; persistent, yet flexible.
—Unknown Source

敏而不疑，缜而不繁；娇而不横，求而不奢；诤而有益，谋而有断；处危有度，历难有瞻；其节如松，其韧若竹。

A theory, to be of value, must not merely emerge from the careful collection and organization of individual observations, but should be expressed through a set of unexpected and imaginative insights, much like the inspiration of a poet or composer.
—Robert Schulmann, Einstein On Politics, 2007

一个理论若要具有价值，则肯定不能仅仅从仔细收集和整理的一些单个的观察中凸显，而是应该以一组不期而至的富有想象力的洞见表现出来，一如诗人或作曲家的灵感。

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.
—Albert Einstein, The World As I See It, 1934

我孤寂地生活着，年轻时痛苦万分，而在成熟之年里却甘之如饴。

为有牺牲多壮志，敢教日月换新天。
—毛泽东，《七律·到韶山》，1959

Bitter sacrifice strengthens bold resolve. Which dares to make sun and moon shine in new skies.
—Translation by Foreign Languages Press

文变染乎世情，兴废系乎时序。
—刘勰，《文心雕龙·时序》，502

Literature evolves with society, it goes up and down with the time.
—Translation by Yongsheng Cheng

Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don’t want it.
—Duke Ellington

Empathy is not gay. Empathy is not Black. Empathy is bi-sexual. It must go both ways.
—Dave Chappelle, The Closer, 2021

Punching down requires you to consider yourself superior to another group. @DaveChappelle doesn't consider himself better than me in any way. He isn't punching up or punching down. He's punching lines. That's his job and he's a master of his craft. #SticksAndStones #imthatdaphne
— Daphne Dorman (@DaphneDorman) August 29, 2019