Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
In effect, we conjure the spirits of the computer with our spells.
From SICP
The cheapest, fastest, and most reliable components are those that aren't there.
Gordon Bell
Interfaces keep things tidy, but don't accelerate growth: Functions do.
Alan J. Perlis
Making something variable is easy. Controlling duration of constancy is the trick.
Alan J. Perlis
In software, the most beautiful code, the most beautiful functions, and the most beautiful programs are sometimes not there at all.
Jon Bentley
Motto for a research laboratory: What we work on today, others will first think of tomorrow.
Alan J. Perlis
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
John Gall
Anyone who considers arithmetic methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin.
John von Neumann
In programming, everything we do is a special case of something more general -- and often we know it too quickly.
Alan J. Perlis
Don't fix it if it ain't broke presupposes that you can't improve something that works reasonably well already. If the world's inventors had believed this, we'd still be driving Model A Fords and using outhouses.
H. W. Kenton