Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
Giving up on assembly language was the apple in our Garden of Eden: Languages whose use squanders machine cycles are sinful. The LISP machine now permits LISP programmers to abandon bra and fig-leaf.
Alan J. Perlis
The difference between something that can go wrong and something that can’t possibly go wrong is that when something that can’t possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
Douglas Adams
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive down below.
John Dryden
Human beings are not accustomed to being perfect, and few areas of human activity demand it. Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program.
Anonymous
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
Donald Knuth
If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough.
Alan Kay
Sure, it's overkill. But you can never have too much overkill...
Anonymous
Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first, it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer
... what society overwhelmingly asks for is snake oil. Of course, the snake oil has the most impressive names — otherwise you would be selling nothing — like "Structured Analysis and Design", "Software Engineering", "Maturity Models", "Management Information Systems", "Integrated Project Support Environments" "Object Orientation" and "Business Process Re-engineering" (the latter three being known as IPSE, OO and BPR, respectively).
Edsger W. Dijkstra
One who works with their hands is a laborer.
Anonymous
One who works with their hands and their mind is a craftsman.
One who works with their hands, mind and heart is an artist.