... the whole hierarchy [of society] should have its face set in the direction of a goal whose importance and even grandeur can be felt by all, from the highest to the lowest.
— Simone Weil, The Need for Roots, p. 14
For the principle and proper work of history [is] to instruct and enable men, by the knowledge of actions past, to bear themselves prudently in the present and providentially towards the future.
— Thomas Hobbes [quoted by Alan Jacobs]
The knowledge of faith is a practical knowledge, a knowledge of the heart rather than of the head, a knowledge with a personal, profound, soul-absorbing concern, for it pertains to something in which the self in its inmost essence is concerned, something in which my existence, my life, my soul, my salvation is involved. Faith is an approbation and an acceptance, therefore, and a knowledge of a testimony coming to a person; but it is an acceptance of that testimony in its application to oneself, a receiving of the word of the preaching of God, not as a human word, but as the word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). It is an approbation by the self of the gospel as a message which God sends to me personally.
— Herman Bavinck
Teach me work that honors Thy work,
the true economies of goods and words,
to make my arts compatible
with the songs of the local birds.
Teach me patience beyond work
and, beyond patience, the blest
Sabbath of Thy unresting love
which lights all things and gives rest.
— Wendell Berry, This Day, p. 235
So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.
—
For Christian thought, delight is the premise of any sound epistemology: it is delight that constitutes creation, so only delight can comprehend it, see it aright, understand its grammar. Only in loving creation's beauty - only in seeing that creation is beauty - does one apprehend what creation is.
— David Bentley Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite, p. 253
There are innumerable evidences both in heaven and on earth that declare his wonderful wisdom; not only those more recondite matters for the closer observation of which astronomy, medicine, and all natural science are intended, but also those which thrust themselves upon the sight of even the most untutored and ignorant persons, so that they cannot open their eyes without being compelled to witness them. Indeed, men who either quaffed or even tasted the liberal arts penetrate with their aid far more deeply into the secrets of the divine wisdom. Yet ignorance of them prevents no one from seeing more than enough of God's workmanship in his creation to lead him to break forth in admiration of the Artificer.
— John Calvin, Institutes, 1.5.2 (emphasis mine)
Wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory. You cannot in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful system of the universe, in its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness.
— John Calvin, Institutes, 1.5.1
To prosper, an interface must be well suited for its task - simple, general, regular, predictable, robust - and it must adapt gracefully as its users and its implementation change. Good interfaces follow a set of principles. These are not independent or even consistent, but they help us describe what happens across the boundary between two pieces of software.
— The Practice of Programming, Kerrigan and Pike, p. 103-104
The strongest test of any system is not how well its features conform to anticipated needs but how well it performs when one wants to do something the designer did not foresee. It is a question less of possibility than of perspicuity: Can the user see what is to be done and simply go do it?
— Alan Kay, Computer Software, Scientific American, Issue 251, 9/84
Although it may seem trite to say it, Object/Relational Mapping is the Vietnam of Computer Science. It represents a quagmire which starts well, gets more complicated as time passes, and before long entraps its users in a commitment that has no clear demarcation point, no clear win conditions, and no clear exit strategy.
— Ted Neward
... we find ourselves in the territory of a contested creation.
— James K. A. Smith, Awaiting the King, p. 50
Most of the time, no matter how much effort one expends, no event of any great significance will result.
—
The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.
— Flannery O'Connor
It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.
— BusinessWeek, May 25 1998