A semi-random collection of few of my favorite (mostly) science-related quotations.
"Statistical mechanics does not tell us what the relevant variables are. This is our choice. If we choose well, the results may be useful; if we choose badly, the results (while still formally correct) will probably be useless." -Robert Zwanzig, Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that." - Richard Feynman, Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman
"The way to have good ideas is to have a lot of ideas and throw away the bad ones." - Linus Pauling
"If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day." - John Wheeler
"Defects make men, and materials, interesting." - Alan Cottrell (unverified)
"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn." - T.H. White (The Once and Future King)
"But then a miracle occurred, as it has occurred again and again in my life, and it's very lucky for me: the moment I start to think about the physics, and have to concentrate on what I'm explaining, nothing else occupies by mind - I'm completely immune to being nervous. So after I started to go, I just didn't know who was in the room. I was only explaining the idea, that's all." - Richard Feynman, Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman
"Every time it happens, the process is similar. A picture or story yields curiosity, curiosity evolves to captivation, and captivation leads to intimidation. With time and preparation we eventually commit, and from commitment we always grow." - Kyle Dempster (1982-2016), describing the process of picking problems, here in the context of alpinism
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil." - Donald Knuth
"Remember when is the lowest form of conversation." - Tony Soprano