Donald Knuth quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Donald Knuth

Donald Knuth Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Donald Knuth on Wise Famous Quotes.

We should continually be striving to transform every art into a science: in the process, we advance the art.

How can you own [ ... ] numbers? Numbers belong to the world.

I'm obsessively detail-oriented.

The best theory is inspired by practice.

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.

I've never been a good estimator of how long things are going to take.

Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.

The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random.

Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random

The best practice is inspired by theory.

I can't go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at the fonts on the menu.

The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work.

Always remember, however, that there's usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.

By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method; it is much closer to reality.

I have a hunch that the unknown sequences of DNA will decode into copyright notices and patent protections.

The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.

It is much more rewarding to do more with less.

Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.

Meta-design is much more difficult than design; it's easier to draw something than to explain how to draw it.

It would be nice if we could design a virtual reality in Hyperbolic Space, and meet each other there.

I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof.

Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been prepared with the help of a computer.

The most important thing in the kitchen is the waste paper basket and it needs to be centrally located.

In fact what I would like to see is thousands of computer scientists let loose to do whatever they want. That's what really advances the field.

There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency.

Programming is the art of telling another human being what one wants the computer to do.

[The Euclidean algorithm is] the granddaddy of all algorithms, because it is the oldest nontrivial algorithm that has survived to the present day.

TeX has found at least one bug in every Pascal compiler it's been run on, I think, and at least two in every C compiler

The language in which we express our ideas has a strong influence on our thought processes.

God is a challenge because there is no proof of his existence and therefore the search must continue.

A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.

Trees sprout up just about everywhere in computer science ...

The whole thing that makes a mathematician's life worthwhile is that he gets the grudging admiration of three or four colleagues.

Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour.