Several people have told me that my inability to suffer fools gladly is one of my main weaknesses.

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.

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

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.

I want to touch people's lives, and bring them along with me.

You cannot slander human nature; it is worse than words can paint it.

We will have to embark on a change so radical, a revolution so quiet and yet so total, that it will go far beyond the programme for a parliament.

Similarly you can make a transition from one set of instruments to another imperceptibly.

Every day I break my own personal record for number of days I have been alive.

The transformation of capitalism is unstoppable because we need limits on resources for humans to survive.

I was still in school after I dropped my first solo album.

In hard times, beauty can seem frivolous - but take it away, and all you're left with is hard times.

If your letters are as long as the bible, they will appear short to me. Only let them be brim full of affection.

My parents are awesome, but they're pretty left-wing.