Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written and another for which it wasn't. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
Often it is the means that justify the ends: goals advance technique and technique survives even when goal structures crumble. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing vitality of FORTRAN. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
LISP programmers know the value of everything and the cost of nothing. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
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… — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
Optimization hinders evolution. Everything should be built top-down, except the first time. Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God. — Alan Perlis Copy Share Image
