Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.
Edsger Dijkstra
One does not learn computing by using a hand calculator, but one can forget arithmetic.
Alan J. Perlis
The cybernetic exchange between man, computer and algorithm is like a game of musical chairs: The frantic search for balance always leaves one of the three standing ill at ease.
Alan J. Perlis
I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits.
Kent Beck
The goal of Computer Science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it.
Anonymous
Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
Alan J. Perlis
Programming languages are like girlfriends: The new one is better because you are better.
Anonymous
Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written, and another for which it wasn't.
Alan J. Perlis
Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases.
Anonymous
Question: How does a large software project get to be one year late? Answer: One day at a time!
Fred Brooks