Grace Murray Hopper

Computer Science American 1906 – 1992 302 quotes

A pioneer in computer programming, she developed the first compiler and co-developed COBOL.

Most quoted

"I had a very good friend who said, 'I don't know how you can stand to work with computers, they're so impersonal.' I told her, 'It's the people I work with who are impersonal; the computers are very cooperative.'"

— from Attributed

"We're flooding people with information. We need to feed it through a processor. A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge. We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question."

— from Speech, 1982

"In pioneer days they used oxen for heavy pulling, and when one ox couldn't budge a log, they didn't try to grow a larger ox. We shouldn't be trying for bigger computers, but for more systems of computers."

— from Speech, 1981

All quotes by Grace Murray Hopper (302)

I always wanted to do something in the service of my country, but I wasn't interested in becoming a nurse or a teacher, the traditional roles for women.

Attributed

We need to teach people how to think, not what to think.

Attributed