Programming Quotes

653 quotes by 371 authors

The one who insists on never uttering an error must remain silent. — Werner Heisenberg
It's [programming] the only job I can think of where I get to be both an engineer and an artist. There's an incredible, rigorous, technical… — Andy Hertzfeld
I was eventually persuaded of the need to design programming notations so as to maximize the number of errors which cannot be made, or if… — Tony Hoare
In the development of the understanding of complex phenomena, the most powerful tool available to the human intellect is abstraction. Abstraction arises from the recognition… — Tony Hoare
What is the central core of the subject [computer science]? What is it that distinguishes it from the separate subjects with which it is related?… — Tony Hoare
To treat programming scientifically, it must be possible to specify the required properties of programs precisely. Formality is certainly not an end in itself. The… — Jim Horning
One purpose of CRC cards [a design tool] is to fail early, to fail often, and to fail inexpensively. It is a lot cheaper to… — Cay S. Horstmann
We teachers make the road, others will make the journey. — Victor Hugo
In the particular is contained the universal. — James Joyce
If you have a large number of unrelated ideas, you have to get quite a distance away from them to get a view of all… — John G. Kemeny
Another effective [debugging] technique is to explain your code to someone else. This will often cause you to explain the bug to yourself. Sometimes it… — Brian Kernighan
...methods are more important than facts. The educational value of a problem given to a student depends mostly on how often the thought processes that… — Donald Knuth
...One of the most important lessons, perhaps, is the fact that SOFTWARE IS HARD. From now on I shall have significantly greater respect for every… — Donald Knuth
When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly true. In general,… — Donald Knuth
There is a race between the increasing complexity of the systems we build and our ability to develop intellectual tools for understanding their complexity. If… — Leslie Lamport
We think only through the medium of words. Languages are true analytical methods. Algebra, which is adapted to its purpose in every species of expression,… — Antoine Lavoisier
We don't have much time, so we don't teach them; we acquaint them with things that they can learn. — Charles E. Leiserson
Composing computer programs to solve scientific problems is like writing poetry. You must choose every word with care and link it with the other words… — James Lovelock
In the beginning we must simplify the subject, thus unavoidably falsifying it, and later we must sophisticate away the falsely simple beginning. — Maimonides
Development is maintenance. — Brian Marick

Who Wrote These Programming Quotes

371 authors contributed a total of 653 Programming Quotes, led by these top contributors: