"What, after all, what is the most logical way for superman to evolve? Not in one fantastic mutation of unknown thousands of genes all working to produce the same results: the very formulation was an insult to the laws of probability. No, homo superior should have evolved from homo sapiens in the same way that other species had evolved from a parent stock—by isolation of a few not very different mutations, selection and intensification of the new traits, new mutations gradually appearing and being lost if they were unfavorable, being incorporated if they gave some advantage."

"And I will not ask what all others ask of you - why? Because what I have come to understand is that there is no why. To ask why is to impose expectations on mute existence - expectations it is in no way obliged to meet or even extend. And so I make no more, ask no more."

"Always secure your files, you never know who is lurking about."

""The question is, is that a bug or a feature?" Karl asked."

"Programming is like pinball. The reward for doing it well is the opportunity to do it again."

"Judith looked at the demons and shook her head. "I'm glad we didn't build four processors. I'm not sure I could take a barbershop quartet!""

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."

"He deliberately left them out of the code. After all, he rationalized, this is only version 1.0."

"Murphy said, 'Constants aren't', and Murphy was apparently one of the gods of this universe."

"It is a pity the universe doesn't use a segmented architecture with a protected mode!"

"Wiz thought about what it would be like to work with a computer that killed the programmer every time it crashed and shuddered."

"What happened, get lost in the directory tree again?"

"As flat as an open can of coke, left on a programmer's desk over the weekend."

"The three most dangerous things in the world are a programmer with a soldering iron, a hardware type with a program patch and a user with an idea."

"It's always the details that get you in trouble."

"Never ask them for an explanation. You only end up worse confused."

"It's how you get rid of cats. You get a 500-pound parakeet and teach it to say, "Here, kitty kitty kitty.""

""We learned dwarves are not meant to fly." came a voice from the edge of the circle."

""What was that?" Jerry asked, peering over the edge. "I think it was a ninja dwarf." Wiz said wonderingly..."

"The law of similarity made any map a magical instrument."

"Je suis un homme pour qui le monde visible existe."

"Le hasard, c'est peut-être le pseudonyme de Dieu quand il ne veut pas signer."

"Tout passe. – L'art robuste Seul a l'éternité, Le buste Survit à la cité. Et la médaille austère Que trouve un laboureur Sous terre Révèle un empereur."

"Oui, l'œuvre sort plus belle D'une forme au travail Rebelle, Vers, marbre, onyx, émail."

"Naître, c'est seulement commencer à mourir."

"Le poète est ainsi dans les Landes du monde. Lorsqu'il est sans blessure, il garde son trésor. Il faut qu'il ait au cœur une entaille profonde Pour épancher ses vers, divines larmes d'or!"

"Ils sont si transparents qu'ils laissent voir votre âme."

"Virginité, mysticisme, mélancolie, – trois mots inconnus, – trois maladies nouvelles apportées par le Christ."

"Il n'y a de vraiment beau que ce qui ne peut servir à rien; tout ce qui est utile est laid."

"The second romantics are true seers: Th. Gautier, Lec. de Lisle, Th. de Banville. But to explore the invisible and to hear the unheard are very different from reviving the dead."

"Demander à la poésie du sentimentalisme…ce n'est pas ça. Des mots rayonnants, des mots de lumière…avec un rythme et une musique, voilà ce que c'est, la poésie."

"L'art pour l'art signifie, pour les adeptes, un travail dégagé de toute préoccupation autre que celle du beau en lui-même."

"A thousand wrong plans were no more useful that a single wrong one."

"“We need both heart and mind,” Lirin said. “The heart might provide the purpose, but the head provides the method, the path. Passion is nothing without a plan. Wanting something doesn’t make it happen.”"

"“I’m telling you to think!” his father snapped. “I’m telling you that if you want to change the world, you have to stop being part of the problem!”"

"I’m not using a key at all. I’m breaking the lock."

"If there is one thing I can guarantee you about humankind, Last Listener, is is this: Provide them with a sword , and they will find a way to impale themselves upon it.”"

"“Must be nice,” Adolin said, patting the horse, “to not have to worry about things like politics or relationships.” The horse snorted in a way that Adolin thought was distinctly dismissive. Well, perhaps there was more to complicate a horse’s life than a man could ever see."

"“No one ever accomplished anything by being content with who they were, Shallan,” Adolin said. “We accomplish great things by reaching toward who we could become.” “As long as it’s what you want to become. Not what someone else thinks you should become.”"

"“It wouldn’t be polite for me to interrupt,” Notum said. “Please continue your insane rant.”"

"I wasn’t thinking straight, Veil thought. That’s kind of the point of drinking.…"

"Navani wasn’t certain what to think about how easily it had happened. It was nice to make headway; yet in her experience, a fair breeze one day was the herald of a tempest to come."

"She had been around enough intelligent people to know they worked best in an encouraging environment where study and discovery were rewarded."

"Would you prefer a reinforcement of what you already want to believe, or do you seek the truth?"

"That’s the trouble with science. It’s never done. Always upending itself. Ruining perfect systems for the little inconvenience of them being wrong."

"“Do you believe?” Kaladin asked as he advanced. “In God, or the Almighty or whatever?” “I don’t have to believe,” the voice drifted back. “I know gods exist. I simply hate them.”"

"A good lie, the delicious kind, hinted at hidden grandeur or further secrets. This was instead the lie of a drunken has-been at the bar, trying to drum up enough pity to get a free drink. It was more pathetic than interesting."

"The fact that these had thrown their lives away so wantonly did not speak highly of their master."

"Heroism is a myth you tell idealistic young people—specifically when you want them to go bleed for you."

"These are not the actions of greatness. You are no scholar. You merely like being near them. You are no artifabrian. You are merely a woman who likes trinkets. You have no fame, accomplishment, or capacity of your own. Everything distinctive about you came from someone else. You have no power—you merely like to marry men who have it."