Neal Stephenson

“The difference between a bad programmer and a good one is whether he considers his code or his data structures more important.”

“Junkies might be easy to cheat, but they're not easy to please.”

“In the beginning was the command line.”

“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world.”

“The first million people to be connected to the Internet by a given technology are the ones who have the most shaping power.”

“When I want to really understand something, I write a book about it.”

“Arguing with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

“The future is a convenient place for dreams.”

“Any strategy that involves crossing a valley while the enemy holds the high ground is a bad one.”

“We are the people, we are the nation, we are the ten thousand C-H-O-I-C-E-S that make a winner.”

“Human beings are not very good at making new things, but we are very good at making new things out of old things.”

“All the bad stuff is going to happen, and you have to get through it.”

“The simple truth is that technology is still a poor substitute for human interaction.”

“The line between tool and tyrant is thin.”

“We need to get back to the idea that science is a process, not a collection of facts.”

“Four-fifths of all the money in the world is spent on things that are not necessary. It is a man's freedom to be a fool.”