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

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

  Alan Kay

  Simple, Simplicity, Should

  8 Copy quote

• I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun.

  Alan Perlis

  Fun, Learning, Successful

  "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs". Textbook by Gerald Jay Sussman and Hal Abelson, 2nd edition, 1996.

  7 Copy quote

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• 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

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• 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

• More than the act of testing, the act of designing tests is one of the best bug preventers known.

  Boris Beizer

  Design, Tests, Bugs

  Boris Beizer (1990). “Software Testing Techniques”, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

  9 Copy quote

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• 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

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• The only way for errors to occur in a program is by being put there by the author. No other mechanisms are known. Programs can't acquire bugs by sitting around with other buggy programs.

  Harlan Mills

  Errors, Sitting, Way

  7 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

  177 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

• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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

  Alan Kay

  Language, Building, Programming

  17 Copy quote

• 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

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• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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

  Victor Hugo

  Teacher, Learning, Journey

  13 Copy quote

• Learning is never done without errors and defeat.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Inspirational, Education, Teacher

  137 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

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