Grace Murray Hopper
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 never retired; I just changed jobs.
The thrill of discovery never fades.
A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things.
Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, 'We've always done it this way.' I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise.
The only phrase I've ever heard that I dislike is, 'Why didn't we do this sooner?'
I often say that I'm a 'bug hunter.' I'm always looking for bugs in the system, and I'm always trying to fix them.
We're not just building computers, we're building a future.
I'm not afraid of anything. I'm just afraid of not doing something.
The greatest risk is not taking any risk.
We're all pioneers. We're all exploring new territory.
The future belongs to those who can see it.
I didn't do anything special. I just kept going.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
We're going to have to learn to live with computers, because they're here to stay.
I'm a great believer in the young people. They're the ones who are going to change the world.
The only thing that's constant is change.
We have to teach people to think, not just to memorize.
I'm not a pessimist. I'm an optimist who's been disappointed a lot.
The most important thing is to keep learning.
We're not just building machines, we're building minds.
Contemporaries of Grace Murray Hopper
Other Computer Sciences born within 50 years of Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992).