Mediocre design provably wastes the world's resources, corrupts the environment, affects international competitiveness. Design is important.

More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined.

Dissertations are not finished; they are abandoned.

A design style is defined by a set of microdecisions. A clear style reflects a consistent set. A clear style may not be a good style; a muddled one never is.

Originality is no excuse for ignorance.

It is very difficult to make a vigorous, plausible, and job-risking defense of an estimate that is derived by no quantitative method, supported by little data, and certified chiefly by the hunches of the managers

System debugging, like astronomy, has always been done chiefly at night.