I like this quote, "things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."

I think the natural instinct with programming is to try and simplify the code by means of generalization. But we often over-simplify, and reality is messy. Or as TFA mentions, time passes and new requirements arise, so it turns out that we have simplified prematurely!

Sounds like this should be an aphorism. Premature abstraction is the root of much suck!