Konrad Zuse

The first computer was not a commercial product. It was a proof of concept, built from scrap metal.

To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer with a bug in its program.

The finite nature of resources teaches an engineer more about the world than any philosophy book.

I saw the computer as a universal tool. Others saw it as a large calculator. That was the difference.

The Z3 used floating-point numbers. You cannot do serious engineering without them.

Destruction is easy. Construction is hard. That is why we need engineers more than ever.

A patent is only as good as the lawyers you can afford to defend it.

The light bulb moment came not in a university, but in the solitude of my own workshop.

Binary logic is the grammar of the machine. Plankalkül was meant to be its poetry.

Technical progress is inevitable. The question is whether it will be used for good or ill.

I built computers because I wanted to use them, not sell them. I was an engineer, not a businessman.

The true complexity lies not in the hardware, but in the sequence of operations – the program.

Sometimes you have to ignore the 'experts' who say something cannot be done.

The Z1 was a mechanical nightmare, but it proved the concept worked.

An idea has no value until it is realized in metal, wood, or code.

We stand on the threshold of an age where machines will extend our minds, just as tools extended our hands.

The most profound systems are built on the simplest principles.

My legacy is not in the patents, but in the fact that every computer in the world uses the principles I laid down.