Donald Knuth (1938-now, computer programmer)
"...the designer of a new system must not only be the implementor and the first large-scale user; the designer should also write the first user manual." (AZQuotes.com)
Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957, poet)
"The great artists are the ones who dare to entice to beauty things so natural that when they're seen afterward, people say: why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful." (The Immoralist, 1902)
Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903, historian)
"To create order amidst this chaos did not require either brilliance of conception or a mighty display of force, but it required a clear insight into the interests of Rome and of her subjects, and vigor and consistency in establishing and maintaining the institutions recognized as necessary." (The History of Rome, 1854-1856)
Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953, playwright)
"A man's work is in danger of deteriorating when he thinks he has found the one best formula for doing it. If he thinks that, he is likely to feel that all he needs is merely to go on repeating himself... So long as a person is searching for better ways of doing his work, he is fairly safe." (Quoted in Conversations with Eugene O'Neill by Mark Estrin)
Pär Lagerkvist (1891-1974, writer)
"What would life be like if it were not futile? Futility is the foundation upon which it rests. On what other foundation could it have been based which would have held and never given way?" (The Dwarf, 1944)
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960, writer)
"The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say." (My Sister, Life and Other Poems)
Władysław Reymont (1867-1925, writer)
"It is only our expectations of life that are terrible. It is only our impossible conceptions of beauty and good and justice that are terrible - because they never are realized, and at the same time they prevent us taking life as it is. That is the real source of all our sorrow and suffering." (AZQuotes.com)
