1. “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  2. “All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That’s in the nature of secrets.” - Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
  3. “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” - Heraclitus
  4. “Property is theft!” - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
  5. “One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code.” - Ken Thompson

That last one makes it clear what I do for a living, but in software engineering, it’s a good one to keep in mind.