Best programming and hacker quotes. Ever.
Curated by fellow hackers Jarmo Pertman & Andri Möll
On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
Charles Babbage
Software and cathedrals are much the same - first we build them, then we pray.
Anonymous
Wherever there is modularity there is the potential for misunderstanding: Hiding information implies a need to check communication.
Alan J. Perlis
Sometimes, the elegant implementation is just a function. Not a method. Not a class. Not a framework. Just a function.
John Carmack
As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.
Dave Parnas
The best book on programming for the layman is "Alice in Wonderland"; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
Alan J. Perlis
It is not the computer's fault that Maxwell's equations are not adequate to design the electric motor.
Alan J. Perlis
A programmer never dies he just degrades gracefully.
Anonymous
In effect, we conjure the spirits of the computer with our spells.
From SICP
If it doesn't work, it doesn't matter how fast it doesn't work.
Ravera's observation on premature optimization