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Share Your Best Motivational Quotes

Sai gowtham on May 24, 2018

Mine is

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” —Walt Disney

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eljayadobe profile image
Eljay-Adobe

"If you don't have the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?"
not sure who originally said it; I heard it from Curt Carlson; coach John Wooden is known to have said it; John G. McCrory is known to have said it

"Live in the now."
Buddhist mindfulness

"Only half of programming is coding. The other 90% is debugging."
unknown

"Weeks of coding can save you hours of planning."
unknown

"Without requirements or design, programming is the art of adding bugs to an empty text file."
unknown

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
Wayne Gretzky

"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Fast. Good. Cheap. Pick two."
unknown

"Fast. Good. Cheap. Pick zero."
Eljay

"The best reaction to 'this is confusing, where are the docs?' is to rewrite the feature to make it less confusing, not write more docs."
Jeff Atwood

"The best way to get a project done faster is to start sooner."
Jim Highsmith

"The goal of Computer Science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it."
anonymous

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
Brian W. Kernighan

"There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies."
C.A.R. Hoare

"What a single rock star developer can do in a month, can take a team of developers a year in order to fix that damage."
anonymous

"When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other programmers said I was daft to build an application on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest application on these operating systems."
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (paraphrased)

"Scrummerfall. n. The practice of combining Scrum and Waterfall so as to ensure failure at a much faster rate than you had with Waterfall alone."
Brad Wilson

"The code is hollow--it goes on forever--and--oh my God!--it's full of bugs!"
Arthur C. Clarke's character David Bowman, 2001 (the book) paraphrased

"Bugs hide bugs."
Eljay

"You want to optimize the organization for the people – for the people doing the work – not for the managers. Most large mistakes in organizational design come from putting the individual ambitions of the people at the top of the organization ahead of the communication paths for the people at the bottom of the organization."
Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things (190)

(I included a couple of my own. Blatant self-aggrandizement.)

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monknomo profile image
Gunnar Gissel

This is a fantastic list, love it

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ghost profile image
Ghost • Edited

After I graduated I learned this lesson fast. It's a great quote about just knowing the tools doesn't make you a craftsman. :-)

“Computer science education cannot make anybody an expert programmer any more than studying brushes and pigment can make somebody an expert painter.” - Eric S. Raymond

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J.D. Hillen

These are two of my favorite...

I'm really good at ideas

Find what you love and let it kill you. - Bukowski

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Frank Carr

Another Bruce Lee one...

"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

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lepinekong profile image
lepinekong

So true, though very hard to follow without being a true master like him ;)

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pichardoj profile image
J. Pichardo • Edited

"Just do it"

I'm not sure who said it, nonetheless, I'm pretty sure it isn't from Shia Lebouf

“There is no programming language–no matter how structured–that will prevent programmers from making bad programs.” - Larry Flon

Another of my favorites

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever” - Mahatma Gandhi

Something that might as well become my motto

And finally one I read today

"You might not think that programmers are artists, but programming is an extremely creative profession. It's logic-based creativity.” - John Romero

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lepinekong profile image
lepinekong • Edited

When I feel discouraged by the state of the World, I remember this by William McRaven, US Navy Admiral :)

If You Want to Change the World, Start Off by Making Your Bed.

If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another
task and another and another and by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into mini task completed.

Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter if you can't do the little things right you'll never be able to do the big things right and if by chance you have a miserable day you will come home to a bed that is made that you made and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

-- William McRaven, US Navy Admiral

youtube.com/watch?v=3sK3wJAxGfs

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Douglas McKechie

"Action is the key to your success" - discovered this many years ago and can't remember who said it, but a quick google just now search seems to suggest this is a shortening of "Action is the foundational key to all success" by Pablo Picasso.

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Ivan Petrov

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." Henry David Thoreau

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Scott Hannen

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

  • Calvin Coolidge

The whole quote is good but it's the first sentence that sticks with me.

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kball profile image
Kevin Ball

This is my favorite recent one, by Brendon Burchard:

In all the chaos never forget that you can CHOOSE to bring the joy!

Or an alternative phrasing I heard from him was: "Don't expect your work to always bring you joy, bring joy to your work"

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Eugene Cheah • Edited

Personally I run by these two posters which I photoshopped... on my desktop... all the time...

goldern rule

stoicism

Motivational when times are tough - side note - even I cant read Chinese

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michael profile image
Michael Lee 🍕

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." - Dr. Seuss

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s_awdesh profile image
Awdesh

I have couple in my notes but this one is my favorite.

“Some goals are so worthy, it’s glorious even to fail”.

Love it.

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tmcsquared profile image
TMcSquared

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose" -Jim Elliot

"Be what you are, say what you feel; Because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" -Dr. Seuss

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test1975 profile image
Test

If you're a fan of quotes, just want to give a plug to q4td.blogspot.com.au/ which gives you one quote per day. Also available via RSS, Twitter, Facebook and even Google Plus. See site for links.

“Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.”
— Albert Einstein

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dfeuster profile image
Daniel Feuster

Lead, follow, or get out of the way! - Thomas Paine

And from my days as a Combat Engineer in the Army: Essayons. Which means "try" or sometimes "let us try" in French.

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Jose Gonzalez

You are not your thoughts.

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Jesse M. Holmes

I used to love this one, but now I have to be more specific because I believe we are the product of our thoughts.

I guess it depends entirely on the context!

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bizzy237 profile image
Yury

"You always have a choice, even if it's between two bad options"
found it somewhere on the internet and it describes my views on life perfectly. as for something I know the source of

"The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one" - Portal 2

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superissarah profile image
SJ

"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." - Edmund Hillary

"If you get tired learn to rest, not to quit." - Banksy

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chiangs profile image
Stephen Chiang

"The successful warrior is the average man with laser like focus." -Bruce Lee

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bjhaid_93 profile image
/[Abejide Femi Jr]\s/ • Edited

my fav

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sait profile image
Sai gowtham

Wow these is great quote man

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Pavlos P

"It's normal. It's part of the process."

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Rómulo Lazarde • Edited

"Stop pretending you are going to live forever"
Reld Huw

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webbydevvy profile image
Charlie Strack

"Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith!" - Steve Jobs, of course!

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notyoyoma

1.01 ^ 365 = 37.7

If you can improve yourself in an area by 1% every day, in one year, you will be roughly 40 times better.

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jdhillen profile image
J.D. Hillen

@erildo I have no idea. It was one of those random internet finds that I kept for a rainy day.

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wolfhoundjesse profile image
Jesse M. Holmes

I have so many favorites, but this one from Gary V. has really stuck with me:

You are going to die.

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Sergio Flores • Edited

"If you don't build your dream someone will hire you to help build theirs"

Tony A. Gaskins Jr.

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Ben Sinclair

A guaranteed salary? I'll take it.

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Erin Moore

"Wherever you go, there you are."

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Sushant Rahate

First do it.
Then do it right.
Then do it better.