Edsger Dijkstra

The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.

If debugging is the process of removing bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.

Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.

The most important single aspect of software development is to be clear about what you are trying to build.

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.

The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own skull. He therefore approaches his task with due humility, and avoids clever tricks like the plague.

Beauty is our business.

Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!

The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity. It is a price which the market will not pay.

The only effective way to raise the intellectual level of the computer science profession is to make it more difficult to get into.

The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.

The programmer's task is to make the machine do what he wants, not to make the machine do what it can.

The only way to avoid errors is to avoid programming.

The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.

The most important property of a program is whether it is correct.

The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.

The best way to improve the programmer's productivity is to improve the programmer.

We must not forget that the computer is a tool, and that the quality of the tool depends on the quality of the craftsman.

The only way to make a program reliable is to make it simple.