My reading of that is "The unix way is that software should be simple and elegant. The unix way is also that software should work, even if that means pragmatica

My reading of that is "The unix way is that software should be simple and elegant. The unix way is also that software should work, even if that means pragmatically eschewing elegance and simplicity. You must find a balance between these two things". The last abstract-sounding bit, "When the eagle flies, does it forget that its feet have touched the ground? When the tiger lands upon its prey, does it forget its moment in the air?", I take as meaning: "The air is beautiful and pure, free of pragmatic reality and time constraints and so on. The ground is the pragmatic reality. You must keep both in mind, and write beautiful code at times, and also sometimes write awful code to deal with reality at times".