Open Source Code: You can borrow bits, but you get to keep and modify the ideas and give back to others.

You may have heard or seen the following quote at your public library, "You can borrow a book, but you get to keep the ideas." I would like to offer a similar thought in that, "You can borrow bits, but you get to keep and modify the ideas and give back to others." In other words, starting with an existing set of code you can learn from its intent as well as reconstruct it to your own. That is what I love about open source code and tools such as github.