We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it! — Edsger Dijkstra Advice Copy Share Image
When building sand castles on the beach, we can ignore the waves but should watch the tide. — Edsger Dijkstra Beach Copy Share Image
Experience does by no means automatically leads to wisdom and understanding. — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set. — Edsger Dijkstra Disease Copy Share Image
Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! — Edsger Dijkstra Absence Copy Share Image
I don't need to waste my time with a computer just because I am a computer scientist. — Edsger Dijkstra Computer Copy Share Image
Beware of "the real world". A speaker's apeal to it is always an invitation not to challenge his tacit assumptions. — Edsger Dijkstra Assumption Copy Share Image
The effort of using machines to mimic the human mind has always struck me as rather silly. I would rather use them… — Edsger Dijkstra Computers Copy Share Image
Teaching to unsuspecting youngsters the effective use of formal methods is one of the joys of life because it is so extremely… — Edsger Dijkstra Education Copy Share Image
Don't compete with me: firstly, I have more experience, and secondly, I have chosen the weapons. — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in… — Edsger Dijkstra Discovery Copy Share Image
Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated. — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer. — Edsger Dijkstra Abstraction Copy Share Image
In the good old days physicists repeated each other's experiments, just to be sure. Today they stick to FORTRAN, so that they… — Edsger Dijkstra Bugs Copy Share Image
Don't blame me for the fact that competent programming, as I view it as an intellectual possibility, will be too difficult for… — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
It is a mistake to think that programmers wares are programs. Programmers have to produce trustworthy solutions and present it in the… — Edsger Dijkstra Argument Copy Share Image
Many mathematicians derive part of their self-esteem by feeling themselves the proud heirs of a long tradition of rational thinking; I am… — Edsger Dijkstra Heirs Copy Share Image
John von Neumann draws attention to what seemed to him a contrast. He remarked that for simple mechanisms, it is often easier… — Edsger Dijkstra Attention Copy Share Image
FORTRAN, the infantile disorder, by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today:… — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
The use of anthropomorphic terminology forces you linguistically to adopt an operational view. And it makes it practically impossible to argue about… — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
A most important, but also most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits of those who train themselves… — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
When we had no computers, we had no programming problem either. When we had a few computers, we had a mild programming… — Edsger Dijkstra Computer Copy Share Image
So-called "natural language" is wonderful for the purposes it was created for, such as to be rude in, to tell jokes in,… — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
...Simplifications have had a much greater long-range scientific impact than individual feats of ingenuity. The opportunity for simplification is very encouraging, because… — Edsger Dijkstra Copy Share Image
When I came back from Munich, it was September, and I was Professor of Mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Later… — Edsger Dijkstra Analysts Copy Share Image
Yes, I share your concern: how to program well -though a teachable topic- is hardly taught. The situation is similar to that… — Edsger Dijkstra Argument Copy Share Image
… what society overwhelmingly asks for is snake oil. Of course, the snake oil has the most impressive names — otherwise you… — Edsger Dijkstra Analysis Copy Share Image
In this respect a program is like a poem: you cannot write a poem without writing it. Yet people talk about programming… — Edsger Dijkstra Book Copy Share Image
...our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively… — Edsger Dijkstra Correspondence Copy Share Image
In the wake of the Cultural Revolution and now of the recession I observe a mounting pressure to co-operate and to promote… — Edsger Dijkstra Action Copy Share Image
A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits. — Edsger Dijkstra Computer programming Copy Share Image
Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure. — Edsger Dijkstra Beauty Copy Share Image
