Aphorisms

Wikipedia defines an aphorism as a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle.

Software engineering has a ton of aphorisms, and I always find myself referring back to them.

Here's a list with some of my favorite ones:

"The entire history of software engineering is that of the rise in levels of abstraction."

— Grady Booch

"Don't repeat yourself. (DRY)"

"Keep it simple, stupid. (KISS)"

"Developers are drawn to complexity like moths to a flame, often with the same result"

— Neal Ford

"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand."

— Martin Fowler

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil."

— Donald Knuth

"Make the change easy. Then make the easy change."

— Kent Beck

"Make it work, make it right, make it fast."

— Kent Beck

"An abstraction provides a higher level vocabulary that shields the user from the underlying complexity"

— Gregor Hohpe