Computer Programming Quotes

• Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you just want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn

  Stephen Hawking

  Skills, Careers, Secret

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• Computer language design is just like a stroll in the park. Jurassic Park, that is.

  Larry Wall

  Technology, Jurassic Park, Design

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• Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Science, Roots, Evil

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1986). “TEX: The Program”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.

  Martin Fowler

  Inspirational, Funny, Humorous

  Jay Fields, Shane Harvie, Martin Fowler, Kent Beck (2009). “Refactoring: Ruby Edition”, p.36, Pearson Education

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• A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing.

  Alan Perlis

  Learning, Thinking, Knowing

  "Epigrams on Programming". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17 (9), pp. 7-13, pu.inf.uni-tuebingen.de. September 1982.

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• I am rarely happier than when spending an entire day programming my computer.

  Douglas Adams

  Computer, Programming, Spending

  Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine (2011). “Last Chance to See”, p.49, Ballantine Books

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• Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.

  Tom Van Vleck

  Real, Writing, Should

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• Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Science, Technology, Telescopes

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• The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Simplicity, Design, Purpose

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• What I cannot create, I do not understand.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Inspiring, Education, Learning

  Quoted in James Gleick, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992)

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  All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

  Galileo Galilei

  Inspirational, Truth, Science

  "Angels in the workplace: stories and inspirations for creating a new world of work". Book by Melissa Giovagnoli, 1999.

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• Good code is its own best documentation.

  Steve McConnell

  Technology, Documentation, Computer

  Steve McConnell (2004). “Code Complete”, p.817, Pearson Education

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• The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

  Hans Hofmann

  Inspirational, Business, Mean

  1967 Search for the Real.

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• If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Love, Life, Truth

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (2005). “Life Ahead: On Learning and the Search for Meaning”, p.120, New World Library

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• Not only is example the best way to teach, it is the only way.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Earning It, Example, Way

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• Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

  Charles Mingus

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Music

  Charles Mingus' statement in Mainliner Magazine (July 1977); later quoted in Olivia Bertagnolli "Creativity and the writing process" (p. 182), 1982.

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• 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

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• The three most important aspects of debugging and real estate are the same: Location, Location, and Location.

  Richard E. Pattis

  Real, Learning, Important

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• There are different kinds of people in the world.

  Cheryl James

  People, Different, World

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• A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Thinking, Profound, Tools

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• Experience comes from bad judgment.

  Mark Twain

  Learning Something New, Hiking, Climbing

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• If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Funny, Debugging, Bugs

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• It's OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn't need to figure out code. You should be able to read it.

  Steve McConnell

  Murder Mysteries, Needs, Able

  Steve McConnell (2004). “Code Complete”, p.267, Pearson Education

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• Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.

  Stan Kelly-Bootle

  Funny Inspirational, Technology, Compromise

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• When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code.

  Richard E. Pattis

  Quality, Experts, Debugging

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