Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
APL, I believe, can only be learned by writing one-liners–only by seeing in a sense, what you can compress into a line.
Alan J Perlis
Because of its vitality, the computing field is always in desperate need of new cliches: Banality soothes our nerves.
Alan J. Perlis
Around computers it is difficult to find the correct unit of time to measure progress. Some cathedrals took a century to complete. Can you imagine the grandeur and scope of a program that would take as long?
Alan J. Perlis
Recursion is the root of computation since it trades description for time.
Alan J. Perlis
How do we convince people that in programming simplicity and clarity —in short: what mathematicians call "elegance"— are not a dispensable luxury, but a crucial matter that decides between success and failure?
Edsger W. Dijkstra
The best code is no code at all.
Anonymous
He who hasn't hacked assembly language as a youth has no heart. He who does as an adult has no brain.
John Moore
It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
Hofstadter's Law
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
Pablo Picasso
Documentation is like term insurance: It satisfies because almost no one who subscribes to it depends on its benefits.
Alan J. Perlis