Unix is not so much an operating system as an oral history.

When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.

The difference between stupid and intelligent people - and this is true whether or not they are well-educated - is that intelligent people can handle subtlety.

This is one of the two great labyrinths into which human minds are drawn: the question of free will versus predestination.

You should not believe a thing only because you like to believe it. We call that 'Diax's Rake.

To condense fact from the vapor of nuance.

Any property that's open to common use gets destroyed. Because everyone has incentive to use it to the max, but no one has incentive to maintain it.

See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places.

Constable Moore had reached the age when men can subject their bodies to the worst irritations - whisky, cigars, woolen clothes, bagpipes - without feeling a thing or, at least, without letting on.

And it happened all the time that the compromise between two perfectly rational alternatives was something that made no sense at all.

The difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent.

Indeed, these people are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.

Few things surpass old wine and they may preach Who please the more because they preach in vain - Let us have wine and women mirth and laughter Sermons and soda-water the day after.

It's a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you.

Suddenly I found you and the spirit in me sings, Don't have to look no further, You're the soul of many things.

You don't want to get worse at something.

The scent of wine, oh how much more agreeable, laughing, praying, celestial and delicious it is than that of oil!

The more you depend on forces outside yourself, the more you are dominated by them.

Stupid truth, always resisting simplicity

If real development is to take place, the people have to be involved.

I had never imagined myself, nor aspired to be, a member of a royal family. I wanted to be in the Peace Corps, not a princess!