“What would happen if you allowed a bug to slip through a module, and it costyour company $10,000? The nonprofessional would shrug his shoulders, say“stuff happens,” and start writing the next module. The professional wouldwrite the company a check for $10,000!”

“Slaves are not allowed to say no. Laborers may be hesitant to say no. Butprofessionals are expected to say no. Indeed, good managers crave someone whohas the guts to say no. It’s the only way you can really get anything done.”

“It is not enough for code to work.”

“And I told him, I said: "One day you're going to miss the subway because it's not going to come. One of these days, it's going to break down and it's not going to come around and everyone else will just wait for the next one or will take the bus, or walk, or run to the next station: they will go on with their lives. And you're not going to be able to go on with your life! You'll be standing there, in the subway station, staring at the tube. Why? Because you think that everything has to happen perfectly and on time and when you think it's going to happen! Well guess what! That's not how things happen! And you'll be the only one who's not going to be able to go on with life, just because your subway broke down. So you know what, you've got to let go, you've got to know that things don't happen the way you think they're going to happen, but that's okay, because there's always the bus, there's always the next station...you can always take a cab.”

“I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet.”

“Do you realize what would happen if Moses were alive today? He'd go up to Mount Sinai, come back with the Ten Commandments, and spend the next eight years trying to get published.”

“‎"What does it mean if i'm afraid? Does it mean something bad is going to happen?" "No, it doesn't mean something bad is going to happen. It just means that you have the chance to be brave.”