Here are a few quotes collected over the years from various sources.
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
— H. L. Menken
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
— Henry Spencer Usenet
signature, November 1987
Never struggle to decipher subtle code three times. Once might be a one-shot
fluke, but if you find yourself having to figure it out a second time —
because the first was too long ago and you've forgotten details — it is time
to comment the code so that the third time will be relatively painless.
— Henry Spencer
One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code.
— Ken Thompson
There are two ways of constructing a software design. One is to make it so
simple that there are obviously no deficiencies; the other is to make it so
complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far
more difficult.
— C. A. R. Hoare
in The Emperor's Old Clothes, CACM February 1981
Never make the same mistake once.
— Lois Goldthwaite
The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with
judiciously placed print statements.
— Brian W. Kernighan, Unix for Beginners, 1979
This is the great thing about open source software. If the old lead
developer goes insane, you can always fork it, right?
— Scott Richie on
eVACS,
July 30,
2004
The big moment in a computer scientist's life is when you reach your 64th
birthday, because then you're one million in binary.
— Donald
Knuth in his October 17, 2003
Computer Musings
lecture on
notation.