The Three Great Virtues of a Programmer

Laziness

The quality that makes you go to the great effort
to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you
write labor-saving programs that other people will
find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't
have to answer so many questions about it. Hence,
the first great virtue of a programmer.

Impatience

The anger you feel when the computer is being
lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just
react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or
at least pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue
of a programmer.

Hubris

Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you
for. Also the quality that makes you write (and
maintain) programs that other people won't want to
say bad things about. Hence, the third great virute
of a programmer.

         -- Larry Wall and Randal L. Schwartz
            Programming perl