"Pardon me, Your Honor, the concept is not easy to explain--there is an ineffable quality to some technology, described by its creators as a concinnitous, or technically sweet, or a nice hack--signs that it was made with great care by one who was not merely motivated but inspired. It is the difference between an engineer and a hacker."
-- Miss Pao in Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer"

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The disciple who delights in earnestness, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, moves about like fire; burning all his fetters, small or large.
-- Buddha

As the fletcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts. With single-mindedness, the master quells his thoughts. He ends their wandering. Seated in the cave of the heart, he finds freedom.
-- Buddha