Quotes on Computer Science

I'm not a great programmer; I'm just a good programmer with great habits.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

The inside of a computer is as dumb as hell but it goes like mad!

On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

An algorithm must be seen to be believed.

But quality of work can be expected only through personal satisfaction, dedication and enjoyment. In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a simple necessity.

Most of the good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program.

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.

Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Remember how quickly our field [computer science] changes. That's why you want to focus on learning things that don't change: how to work well with other people, how to carefully assess a client's real - as opposed to perceived - needs, and things like that.

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.

The burgeoning field of computer science has shifted our view of the physical world from that of a collection of interacting material particles to one of a seething network of information. In this way of looking at nature, the laws of physics are a form of software, or algorithm, while the material world-the hardware-plays the role of a gigantic computer.

Perhaps the central problem we face in all of computer science is how we are to get to the situation where we build on top of the work of others rather than redoing so much of it in a trivially different way.

Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.

Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.

Throughout my academic career, I'd given some pretty good talks. But being considered the best speaker in the computer science department is like being known as the tallest of the Seven Dwarfs.