Donald Knuth ✓

(1938) computer scientist United States

57 quotes in 887 categories

Donald Knuth (born 1938) was a United States computer scientist, known for TeX|The Art of Computer Programming|literate programming|Computer Modern|WEB|Q1457000|CWEB.

All Donald Knuth Quotes

• ... the designer of a new system must not only be the implementor and the first large-scale user; the designer should also write the first… Activities
• The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it… Aesthetic
• I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making… Algorithms
• Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been prepared with the help of a computer. Any
• Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it. Beauty
• Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers to execute. Computer
• When you write a program, think of it primarily as a work of literature. You're trying to write something that human beings are going to… Beings
• God is a challenge because there is no proof of his existence and therefore the search must continue. Challenge
• I'm obsessively detail-oriented. Detail
• In fact what I would like to see is thousands of computer scientists let loose to do whatever they want. That's what really advances the… Advances
• There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency. Amuse
• I've never been a good estimator of how long things are going to take. Been
• The most important thing in the kitchen is the waste paper basket and it needs to be centrally located. Basket
• My general working style is to write everything first with pencil and paper, sitting beside a big wastebasket. Then I use Emacs to enter the… Beside
• [The Euclidean algorithm is] the granddaddy of all algorithms, because it is the oldest nontrivial algorithm that has survived to the present day. Algorithm
• I think people who write programs do have at least a glimmer of extra insight into the nature of God... because creating a program often… Create
• It is much more rewarding to do more with less. Funny
• Programming is the art of telling another human being what one wants the computer to do. Another Human
• A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God. Anybody
• Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually… All
• The hardest thing is to go to sleep at night, when there are so many urgent things needing to be done. A huge gap exists… Able
• Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. Beware
• The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a… Good
• Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to… Attitude
• Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do. Art

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