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General
If it happens, it must be possible.
Quantity has a quality all its own.
The truth is more important than the facts.
When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.
Complexity comes free. It's simplicity you have to work for.
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things.
Beware of the Turing tar-pit in which everything is possible but nothing of interest is easy.
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.
There are two rules for being a successful consultant: Rule 1 - Don't tell people everything you know.
Modeling
The Devil is in the details.
Follow where the model leads.
Paradox is the midwife of truth.
Little facts get eaten by bigger facts.
Like a dream, a good idea soon disappears.
Do the simplest thing that could possibly work.
The exception puts the rule to the test of proof.
Models should be as simple as possible but no simpler.
In analysis, you expose. In implementation, you hide.
Internal consistency is more highly valued than efficiency.
It's better to begin at the wrong end than not to begin at all.
No model is so good that somebody, somewhere, will not hate it.
The more work that gets put into a diagram the simpler it looks.
Once you've made a few marks, you've got something to argue with.
Nothing is more difficult than creating a system out of thin air.
One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
If a good idea won’t work, then maybe something else has got to change.
It is often better to succeed in simplicity than to risk with complexity.
A model is just a simplified representation of reality and can take many forms.
You can have data without operations but you can't have operations without data.
If you talk about it, even the simplest thing becomes complex and incomprehensible.
When working towards the solution of a problem, it always helps if you know the answer.
If it's ambiguous or doesn't quite to seem to fit right, it probably goes somewhere else.
The term "analysis" means taking things apart and "design" means putting things together.
The Analyst wants to get at the simplest form of the system which has the features they are interested in.
Such is the advantage of a well constructed language that its simplified notation often becomes the source of profound theories.
You know you have achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.
People
Silence is a text easy to misread.
Look out when someone uses the word "leverage".
Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.
Beware of the man who won't be bothered with details.
It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
Opinions maybe in error. Factual statements maybe opinions.
Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
Correct a wise man and he will love you. Correct a fool and he will hate you.
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.
The question "What shall we do about it?" is only asked by those who do not understand the problem.
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
Information
Trust, but verify.
Take nothing for granted.
If it is not written down, it does not exist.
Truth develops constantly with the progress of time.
The simple things are always the hardest to explain.
It’s always good to have a firm grasp of the obvious.
Asking questions is a great way of finding things out.
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
The quality of an answer depends on the quality of the question.
Information in data, knowledge in information, wisdom in knowledge.
If you explain so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody will.
Don't make the measurable things important but make the important things measurable.
In any non-trivial axiomatic system, there are true theorems which cannot be proven.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.
Thinking is not a substitute for information, but information may be a substitute for thinking.
Testing
You can't inspect quality into a product.
Testing cannot prove the absence of errors. Therefore, regulate the process, not merely the result.
Projects
In God we trust; others bring data.
Sometimes you wish you had written more documentation.
Quality is remembered long after the cost is forgotten.
The best decisions are those taken understanding the whole picture.
Never enough time to do it right, always enough time to do it again and again.
Self
Think it through.
It's later than you think.
Logic is the anatomy of thought.
Everyone has an idea that won't work.
For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
What we see depends on mainly what we look for.
Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.
To understand is hard. Once one understands, action is easy.
Know your subject, have all the information, write with authority.
We must deal with the world as it is and not as we might wish it to be.
Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it is the only idea we have.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
Questions are a burden to others, but the answers are a prison for oneself.
The most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps.
When facts are few, speculations are most likely to represent individual psychology.
Know the rules and the grey areas; because the best game takes part around the edges.
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
Discovery is seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.
There's usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.
To do things in the way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think.
Problems
All things are difficult before they are easy.
There are some things we are not meant to know.
Never worry about things you can do nothing about.
No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking.
An analyst is a problem’s way of creating more problems.
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.
An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions.
Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by attacking back.
Inside every small problem is a large problem struggling to get out.
If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it.
Software is a place where dreams are planted and nightmares harvested.
Sooner or later, the worst possible set of circumstances is bound to occur.
It is much easier to suggest solutions when you know nothing about the problem.
Each problem that is solved becomes a rule which serves to solve other problems.
Systems
You can't argue with a working system.
Premature optimization is the root of all evil.
The proof of a system's value is its existence.
It's easier to make a working system fast than to make a fast system work.
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