James Gosling

Computer Science Canadian 1955 361 quotes

Often credited as the father of the Java programming language.

Most quoted

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as you can, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it."

— from Commonly attributed/quoted by him

"The problem with C++ is that it's too easy to shoot yourself in the foot. Java is much harder to shoot yourself in the foot with, but when you do, you blow your whole leg off."

— from Interview/Presentation, 1996

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

— from often attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but Gosling has used it in context of software development

All quotes by James Gosling (361)

The best revenge is massive success.

Attributed

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

Attributed

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.

Attributed

The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

Attributed

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.

Attributed

The only constant in life is change.

Attributed

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Attributed

The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.

Attributed

Believe you can and you're halfway there.

Attributed

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

Attributed

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

Attributed

Everything you can imagine is real.

Attributed

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.

Attributed

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Attributed

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Attributed

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Attributed

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.

Attributed

It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

Attributed

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Attributed

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Attributed