Computer programming Quotes

Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end.

— Khalil Gibran

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.

— Brian Kernighan

The unavoidable price of reliability is simplicity.

— Tony Hoare

If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it.

— Linus Torvalds

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

— Albert Schweitzer

Commercialism is doing well that which should not be done at all.

— Gore Vidal

Scientists build to learn; Engineers learn to build.

— Fred Brooks

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

— Alan Kay

You have to honor failure, because failure is just the negative space around success.

— Richard R. Nelson

Programming languages, like pizzas, come in only too sizes; too big and too small.

— Richard E. Pattis

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

— Alan Perlis

There are only two industries that refer to their customers as 'users'.

— Edward Tufte

If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution.

— Robert Sewell

A teacher's job is to take a bunch of live wires and see that they are well-grounded.

— Darwin D. Martin

That's what's cool about working with computers. They don't argue, they remember everything, and they don't drink all your beer.

— Paul Leary

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

— Stan Kelly-Bootle

In a budget, how important is art versus music versus athletics versus computer programming? At the end of the day, some of…

— Bill Gates

By reaching out to the community through workshops, hackathons, and after-school programs, Black Girls Code introduces computer programming and technology to girls…

— Kimberly Bryant

Considering the current sad state of our computer programs, software development is clearly still a black art, and cannot yet be called…

— William J. Clinton

Just remember: you're not a 'dummy,' no matter what those computer books claim. The real dummies are the people who-though technically expert-couldn't…

— Walt Mossberg

Computer programming has been traditionally seen as something that is beyond most people - it's only for a special group with technical…

— Mitchel Resnick

I got my first computer at the age of 6. To me, it was magic. By the time I was 12, I…

— Tobias Lutke

Computer programming is really a lot like writing a recipe. If you've read a recipe, you know what the structure of a…

— Larry Wall

The only way for errors to occur in a program is by being put there by the author. No other mechanisms are…

— Harlan Mills

Text is linear; it is black and white; it doesn't zoom around the page in 3-D; it isn't intelligent by itself; in…

— Andrea diSessa

A most important, but also most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits of those who train themselves…

— Edsger Dijkstra

In those days [batch processing] programmers never even documented their programs, because it was assumed that nobody else would ever use them.…

— Robert Fano

We think only through the medium of words. Languages are true analytical methods. Algebra, which is adapted to its purpose in every…

— Antoine Lavoisier

To treat programming scientifically, it must be possible to specify the required properties of programs precisely. Formality is certainly not an end…

— Jim Horning

When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly…

— Donald Knuth

As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we…

— Maurice Wilkes

It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an…

— Andy Hertzfeld

Testing by itself does not improve software quality. Test results are an indicator of quality, but in and of themselves, they don't…

— Steve McConnell

I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an…

— Alan Perlis

Good code is its own best documentation.

— Steve McConnell

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

— Victor Hugo

A class, in Java, is where we teach objects how to behave.

— Richard E. Pattis

Question authority; but, raise your hand first.

— Alan Dershowitz

Learning is never done without errors and defeat.

— Vladimir Lenin

If the only tool you have is a hammer, it's hard to eat spaghetti.

— David Allen