Edsger Dijkstra

In the end, all we have is the code we write and the legacy it leaves.

Simplicity is a prerequisite for reliability.

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

The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity.

Do not try to be original; just try to be good.

The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity, of mastering multitude and making it tractable.

We must not forget that the computer is a tool, and as such it should serve us, not the other way around.

It is not the task of the programmer to make the computer understand the program, but to make the program understandable to humans.

The programmer's task is to make the program correct, not to make it run fast.

The computing scientist has a duty to be a good craftsman.

The only way to avoid errors is to avoid writing programs.

The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, for air.

The only way to go fast is to go well.

The quality of a program is inversely proportional to the number of goto statements in it.

The computing community has a moral obligation to educate the public about the true nature of computing.

The programmer's primary task is to understand the problem.

The computer is a mathematical instrument.

The programmer's job is to write programs that are easy to understand, easy to modify, and easy to debug.

The only way to manage complexity is to avoid it.

The computer is a tool for thought.