Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.

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

The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim.

The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world's richest source of rewarding challenges.

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

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

Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.

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

Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.

Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.

Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.

What you have in your mind, your talents, your native abilities, no one can take from you. When you die, you take them with you. Use them diligently while you are here.

If you keep your mouth shut you will never put your foot in it.

Nobody has asked me if I support [Paul] Ryan.

Look at that,' she whispered, and then after a moment: 'I'd like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.

Oxford lends sweetness to labour and dignity to leisure.

I can't imagine life without singing.

No one, not even lovers, are truly psychic, and everyone flounders around each other, misunderstanding, misinterpreting, sending out confusing signals.

Each way means loneliness -- and communion.

Character, I am sure, lies in the genes.

Sometimes when you have limited resources and you really have to think about creative ways to get around some of these problems, generally the end result is better.