Hal Abelson Quotes
Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.
Quotes to Explore
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Science attempts to analyze how things and people and animals behave; it has no concern whether this behavior is good or bad, is purposeful or not. But religion is precisely the quest for such answers: whether an act is right or wrong, good or bad, and why.
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In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water.
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I don't believe in God personally but I have great respect for those people who do and different people have different religious views in this country.
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Don't ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world, it's the only thing that ever has.
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The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes.
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Eliza Factor's first novel, 'The Mercury Fountain,' explores what happens when a life driven by ideology confronts implacable truths of science and human nature. It also shows how leaders can inflict damage by neglecting the real needs of real people.
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Perhaps gaining power doesn't cause people to act like takers. It simply creates the opportunity for people who think like takers to express themselves.
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People only see what they are prepared to see.
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Capitalism offers you freedom, but far from giving people freedom, it enslaves them.
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I do things, and other people laugh at them. I rarely know what the joke is supposed to be or why they're laughing.
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I'm fascinated by the capacity to be able to do harm. I struggle every day with the ability of people to do evil. Not just the big things - the petty things that people do in order to make someone feel small, when it's so easy to do, and it hurts so much.
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After all, life hasn't much to offer except youth, and I suppose for older people, the love of youth in others.
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The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.
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A lot of people put pressure on me, but I don't think I feel that type of pressure. It is more of a good thing that people are trying to do that.
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Those few people who do respond to the dire conditions of the future - journalists, environmentalists, behavioral scientists - tend not to be powerful.
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The government of Iran has no problem with the American nation.
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I have enjoyed every call. The ones involving direct contact with people have been most rewarding.
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The state of New Jersey is really two places - terrible cities and wonderful suburbs. I live in the suburbs, the final battleground of the American dream, where people get married and have kids and try to scratch out a happy life for themselves. It's very romantic in that way, but a bit naive. I like to play with that in my work.
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I was just in the middle of singing a song about how broke we were and now my cell phone rings.
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I try to do things the right way.
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Scientists are also unnerved by the summer's implications for the future...proof that human activities are propelling a slide toward climate calamity...humans may have tipped the balance...a particularly harsh jolt to polar bears.
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Each of us must decide whether it is more important to be proved right or to provoke righteousness.
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Go and ask an undertaker or the guy who operates the crematorium what it takes to get rid of a dead body. It takes one liter of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million?
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Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.
