"About the use of language: it is impossible……" — Edsger Dijkstra
"About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead."
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Edsger Dijkstra
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73 Quotes by Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Dijkstra has 73 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.
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Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.
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If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.
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Why has elegance found so little following? That is the reality of it. Elegance has the disadvantage, if that's what…
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I mean, if 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I…
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APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection.
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Lisp has jokingly been called "the most intelligent way to misuse a computer". I think that description is a great…
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The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can…
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Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable…
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In the good old days physicists repeated each other's experiments, just to be sure. Today they stick to FORTRAN, so…
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The tools we use have a profound and devious influence on our thinking habits, and therefore on our thinking abilities.
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We shall do a much better programming job, provided that we approach the task with a full appreciation of its…
See all 73 quotes by Edsger Dijkstra »
More Axe Quotes
This quote is filed under Axe Quotes,
one of 131 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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If we must have a tyrant, let him at least be a gentleman who has been bred to the business,…
— Lord Byron
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. . . The books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us…
— Franz Kafka
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If we are to define science, ... it does not consist so much in knowing, nor even in "organized knowledge,"…
— Charles Sanders Peirce
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Science affects the average man and woman in two ways already. He or she benefits by its application driving a…
— John B. S. Haldane
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Sleep! I feel the need of it, as never I thought any dwarf could , riding is tiring work. Yet…
— J.R.R. Tolkien
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And where the offense is, let the great axe fall.
— William Shakespeare
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Come to the sunset tree! The day is past and gone; The woodman's axe lies free, And the reaper's work…
— John Milton
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When I talk to anyone or read the writings of anyone who has any axe to grind, I feel that…
— George Orwell
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Crime is redeemed by remorse, but not by a blow of the axe or slipknot. Blood has to be washed…
— Victor Hugo
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You may loan your last dollar to a friend; but never loan him your axe, unless you are certain that…
— Horace Kephart
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Last week my tie caught on fire, some guy tried to put it out with an axe.
— Rodney Dangerfield
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Every moment of mindfulness means the gradual destruction of latent defilements. It is somewhat like cutting away a piece of…
— Unknown Author
See all 131 Axe Quotes »