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)
The future is not a straight line. It's a curve.
We're going to have to learn to live with the unexpected.
The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.
I've always believed that if you want to get something done, you have to do it yourself.
The computer is a very powerful tool, but it's only as good as the people who use it.
Don't just sit there, do something!
The only way to find the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
I'm not interested in the past. I'm interested in the future.
It's much easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission.
I'm not a prophet. I'm just a programmer.
The computer is a tool for the mind, not a substitute for it.
We're going to have to learn to think differently.
The future is not a gift. It is an achievement.
I'm not interested in what's been done. I'm interested in what can be done.
The only way to do great work is to be passionate about what you do.
We're not just building programs, we're building possibilities.
The future is not a place we are going to, but a place we are creating.
It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
I think I'm a good teacher because I'm a good student. I've been learning all my life.
We're all human beings, and we're all going to make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them.
Contemporaries of Grace Murray Hopper
Other Computer Sciences born within 50 years of Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992).