I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of one's contributions to computer science.

Programming is the art of telling another human being what one wants the computer to do.

Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random

Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.

People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.

Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.

Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.

Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers to execute.

We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.

People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that build on each other, like a wall of mini stones.

The whole thing that makes a mathematician’s life worthwhile is that he gets the grudging admiration of three or four colleagues.

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

But an old age serene and bright, and lovely as a Lapland night, shall lead thee to thy grave.

Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.

The American people care about the fact that we have $17 trillion in debt and 10 percent of every tax dollar that's coming in is going to pay for past overspending.

I'm truly amazed at you, Garion," Polgara said. "I didn't think you had the faintest idea of how to speak a civilized language." "Thank you," he said, "I think.

I've had weird, weird acting jobs. Low-budget filmmaking where you find yourself in really bizarre places.

In Paris there are few changes; one always finds one's niche there when one returns - no matter how long one may have been away.

I had a history for starting something and maybe getting halfway done. Then I'd see the same thing I was doing on the bestseller list! My ideas were right, but I hadn't done them fast enough.

There are substantial rewards for adopting a regular routine of investing and following it no matter what, and additional rewards for buying more shares when most investors are scared into selling.

Death ends a life, it does not end a relationship.