Computer Quotes by Larry Wall

In general, they do what you want, unless you want consistency.

— Larry Wall

Save it for my unauthorized autobiography.

— Larry Wall

A good messenger expects to get shot.

— Larry Wall

What about WRITING it first and rationalizing it afterwards?

— Larry Wall

You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language.

— Larry Wall

I think I'm likely to be certified before Perl is...

— Larry Wall

Just don't create a file called.

— Larry Wall

I just hope I'm never promoted to the level of my incontinence.

— Larry Wall

The computer should be doing the hard work. That's what it's paid to do, after all.

— Larry Wall

What is the sound of Perl? Is it not the sound of a wall that people have stopped banging their heads against?

— Larry Wall

Lisp has all the visual appeal of oatmeal with fingernail clippings mixed in.

— Larry Wall

Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris.

— Larry Wall

Just because you're into control doesn't mean you're in control.

— Larry Wall

Although the Perl Slogan is There's More Than One Way to Do It, I hesitate to make 10 ways to do something.

— Larry Wall

It won't be covered in the book. The source code has to be useful for something, after all...

— Larry Wall

Yes, but I did manage to increase the amount of virginity in the world by that method.

— Larry Wall

Post-Modernism was a reaction against Modernism. It came quite early to music and literature, and a little later to architecture. And I…

— Larry Wall

But the possibility of abuse may be a good reason for leaving capabilities out of other computer languages, it's not a good…

— Larry Wall

...this does not mean that some of us should not want, in a rather dispassionate sort of way, to put a bullet…

— Larry Wall

The trouble with being quoted a lot is that it makes other people think you're quoting yourself when in fact you're merely…

— Larry Wall

There is, however, a strange, musty smell in the air that reminds me of something...hmm...yes...I've got it...there's a VMS nearby, or I'm…

— Larry Wall

Many computer scientists have fallen into the trap of trying to define languages like George Orwell's Newspeak, in which it is impossible…

— Larry Wall

[Perl] gives you the STDERR filehandle so that your program can make snide comments off to the side while it transforms (or…

— Larry Wall

The only reason [not to use] perl is that some sysadmins don't allow software that they didn't pay for. By all means,…

— Larry Wall

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

So many computer languages try to force you into one way of thinking and Perl is very much the opposite of that…

— Larry Wall

I've decided I don't want to be a manager. Every time you try to be responsive to your employees, they say you're…

— Larry Wall

Sometimes I wish I could put an expiration date on my quotes.

— Larry Wall

You want it in one line? Does it have to fit in 80 columns?

— Larry Wall

Let's say the docs present a simplified view of reality...

— Larry Wall

A journey of a thousand miles continues with the second step.

— Larry Wall

Besides, REAL computers have a rename system call.

— Larry Wall

I think I'll side with the pissheads on this one.

— Larry Wall

Don't wear rollerskates to a tug-of-war.

— Larry Wall

Just don't create a file called '-rf.'

— Larry Wall

It's there as a sop to former Ada programmers.

— Larry Wall

I think it's a new feature. Don't tell anyone it was an accident.

— Larry Wall

The purpose of most computer languages is to lengthen your resume by a word and a comma.

— Larry Wall

The young think they are immortal, and are determined to prove otherwise.

— Larry Wall

I think computer science, by and large, is still stuck in the Modern age.

— Larry Wall