Quotes Archive

1. Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.
   — Isaac Newton
2. Another roof, another proof.
   — Paul Erdős
3. We shall do a much better programming job, provided we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as very humble programmers.
   — Alan Turing
4. Trees sprout up just about everywhere in computer science...
   — Donald Knuth
5. Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes, biology is about microscopes or chemistry is about beakers and test tubes.
   — Michael R. Fellows, Ian Parberry
6. The value of a problem is not so much coming up with the answer as in the ideas and attempted ideas it forces on the would be solver.
   — I.N. Herstein
7. Mathematics is the queen of the sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics.
   — Carl Friedrich Gauss
8. In mathematics process and result are equivalent.
   — Ludwig Wittgenstein
9. Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!
   — Edsger W. Dijkstra
10. The function of a mathematician, then, is simply to observe the facts about his own hard and intricate system of reality, that astonishingly beautiful complex of logical relations which forms the subject-matter of his science, as if he were an explorer looking at a distant range of mountains, and to record the results of his observations in a series of maps, each of which is a branch of pure mathematics. ... Among them there is perhaps none quite so fascinating, with quite the same astonishing contrasts of sharp outline and mysterious shade, as that which constitutes the theory of numbers.
    — G. H. Hardy
11. There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.
    — Tony Hoare
12. I read once that the true mark of a pro — at anything — is that he understands, loves, and is good at even the drudgery of his profession.
    — Paul Halmos
13. The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree.
    — Aristotle
14. One cannot learn to write large programs effectively until one has learned to write small ones effectively.
    — David Gries
15. The fastest way to discover whether or not you have invented a simple program structure is to try to describe it in completely readable terms...Programming is the art of writing essays in crystal clear prose and making them executable.
    — Per Brinch Hansen
16. I beg to introduce myself to you as a clerk in the Accounts Department of the Port Trust Office at Madras... I have not trodden through the conventional regular course which is followed in a University course, but I am striking out a new path for myself.
    — Srinivasa Ramanujan
17. Add four to 100, multiply by eight, and then add 62,000. By this rule the circumference of a circle with a diameter of 20,000 can be approached.
    — Aryabhata
18. My message to the serious programmer is: spend a part of your working day examining and refining your own methods... methodological abstraction is a wise long term investment.
    — Robert W. Floyd
19. In programming, simplicity and clarity —in short: what mathematicians call "elegance"— are not a dispensable luxury, but a crucial matter that decides between success and failure.
    — Edsger W. Dijkstra
20. A program should be structured in such a way that the argument for its correctness is feasible and not unnecessarily laborious.
    — Edsger W. Dijkstra
21. The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity.
    — Tony Hoare
22. We need to mature this (software) industry into a proper rigorous engineering profession, because otherwise we are building a lot of important things on very very shaky foundations.
    — Martyn Thomas
23. Assertions, or simply Boolean expressions, are really needed in programming... One needs to know how to reason with them: to simplify them, to prove that one follows from another..., and so forth.
    — David Gries
24. Because of mathematics' precise, formal character, mathematical arguments remain sound even when they are long and complex. In contrast, common sense arguments can generally be trusted only if they remain short; even moderately long nonmathematical arguments rapidly become farfetched and dubious.
    — Jacob T. Schwartz
25. You write a spec to help you think about the problem before you think about the code.
    — Leslie Lamport
26. Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.
    — Edsger W. Dijkstra