Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
Charles Babbage
In effect, we conjure the spirits of the computer with our spells.
From SICP
I know it doesn't sound like a big effort, but programmers are really, really lazy, and they like to minimize motion. They'd use feeder tubes if the Health Department would let them.
Steve Yegge
Let the code run free, if it needs to be debugged, it will come back.
Anonymous
A programmer started to cuss
Anonymous
Because getting to sleep was a fuss
As he lay there in bed
Looping 'round in his head
was: while(!asleep()) sheep++;
There's a fine line between being on the leading edge and being in the lunatic fringe.
Frank Armstrong
All programming is an exercise in caching.
Terje Mathisen
If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders.
Hal Abelson
It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter.
Nathaniel S Borenstein
Programming is difficult. At its core, it is about managing complexity. Computer programs are the most complex things that humans make. Quality is illusive and elusive.
Douglas Crockford