The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures. - Frederick Brooks
Programming is understanding. - Kristen Nygaard
Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context. - Eliel Saarinen
Every successful large system is a redesign of a somewhat smaller working system. I know of no exception to this rule. - Bjarne Stroustrup