The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer.

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.

make sure you choose work that makes you happy

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

Be faithful in your calling and you will fulfill your ministry to the end

I can never forget suffering and I will never forget sunset. I came home with all of it in my mind.

Oracle, for example, has even hired people to dumpster dive for information about its competitor, Microsoft. It's not even illegal, because trash isn't covered by data secrecy laws.

the purpose of foreign policy is to persuade others to do what we want or, better yet, to want what we want.

I don’t remember saying that everybody in the country would have a lower premium.

I feel that if I kept it secret it might grow in my mind (as poisonous things grow in the dark) and take its place with the other terrible thoughts that gnaw me

Evolution is one of the two or three most primally fascinating subjects in all the sciences.

Having limits to push against is how you find out what you can do.