Computer Language Quotes

• The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.

  Robert Coveyou

  Learning, Numbers, Important

  47 Copy quote

• When someone says, "I want a programming language in which I need only say what I want done," give him a lollipop.

  Alan Perlis

  Funny Inspirational, Giving, Needs

  40 Copy quote

• Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.

  Donald Knuth

  Funny Inspirational, Reading, Following Instructions

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1984). “The texbook”, Addison-Wesley Professional

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical element to it, which I like because you have to do very precise thinking. On the other hand, it has a wildly creative side where the boundaries of imagination are the only real limitation.

  Andy Hertzfeld

  Jobs, Real, Learning

  10 Copy quote

• Learning is never done without errors and defeat.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Inspirational, Education, Teacher

  138 Copy quote

• A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.

  Frank Herbert

  Inspirational, Business, Moving

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.35, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible.

  Alan Kay

  Simple, Simplicity, Should

  8 Copy quote

• Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

  John Cotton Dana

  Inspirational, Education, Appreciation

  John Cotton Dana's remarks on a quotation suitable for inscription on a new building at Newark State College, Union, New Jersey (1912) as quoted in "The New York Times Book Review" (p. 55.), March 5, 1967.

  71 Copy quote

  Show source

• The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.

  Richard Hamming

  Learning, Math, Numbers

  "Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers". Book by Richard Hamming, 1962.

  51 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the development of the understanding of complex phenomena, the most powerful tool available to the human intellect is abstraction. Abstraction arises from the recognition of similarities between certain objects, situations, or processes in the real world and the decision to concentrate on these similarities and to ignore, for the time being, their differences.

  Tony Hoare

  Powerful, Real, Learning

  25 Copy quote

• Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark.

  Anatole France

  Inspirational, Education, Appreciation

  21 Copy quote

• Lisp isn't a language, it's a building material.

  Alan Kay

  Language, Building, Programming

  17 Copy quote

• One purpose of CRC cards [a design tool] is to fail early, to fail often, and to fail inexpensively. It is a lot cheaper to tear up a bunch of cards that it would be to reorganize a large amount of source code.

  Cay S. Horstmann

  Learning, Design, Tears

  6 Copy quote

• To treat programming scientifically, it must be possible to specify the required properties of programs precisely. Formality is certainly not an end in itself. The importance of formal specifications must ultimately rest in their utility -in whether or not they are used to improve the quality of software or to reduce the cost of producing and maintaining software.

  Jim Horning

  Learning, Quality, Cost

  6 Copy quote

• Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity.

  David Gelernter

  Design, Defense, Complexity

  David Hillel Gelernter (1998). “Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Technology”, Basic Books (AZ)

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was eventually persuaded of the need to design programming notations so as to maximize the number of errors which cannot be made, or if made, can be reliably detected at compile time.

  Tony Hoare

  Learning, Errors, Numbers

  10 Copy quote

• If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.

  Kurt Lewin

  Change, Business, Understanding

  Attributed in "Problems of Theoretical Psychology - ISTP 1995" by Charles W. Tolman, (p. 31), 1996.

  61 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think it is inevitable that people program poorly. Training will not substantially help matters. We have to learn to live with it.

  Alan Perlis

  Learning, Technology, Thinking

  9 Copy quote

• Computer Science is the only discipline in which we view adding a new wing to a building as being maintenance.

  Jim Horning

  Learning, Views, Wings

  9 Copy quote

• We teachers make the road, others will make the journey.

  Victor Hugo

  Teacher, Learning, Journey

  15 Copy quote

• Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Motivational, Learning, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2667, Delphi Classics

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed - it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer.

  Alan Perlis

  Weed, Flower, Computer

  Alan J. Perlis (1975). “Introduction to computer science”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you cannot grok the overall structure of a program while taking a shower, you are not ready to code it.

  Richard E. Pattis

  Simplicity, Program, Structure

  14 Copy quote

• The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but
  how to get old ones out.

  Dee Hock

  Business, Work, Learning

  48 Copy quote

• He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  190 Copy quote