Edsger Dijkstra Quotes
Collection of top 56 famous quotes about Edsger Dijkstra
Edsger Dijkstra Quotes & Sayings
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About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Beware of "the real world". A speaker's apeal to it is always an invitation not to challenge his tacit assumptions.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.
— Edsger Dijkstra
The art of programming is the art of organizing complexity.
— Edsger Dijkstra
It used to be the program's purpose to instruct our computers; it became the computer's purpose to execute our programs.
— Edsger Dijkstra
The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
— Edsger W. Dijkstra
Mathematicians are like managers - they want improvement without change.
— Edsger Dijkstra
The effective exploitation of his powers of abstraction must be regarded as one of the most vital activities of a competent programmer.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes
— Edsger W. Dijkstra
Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.
— Edsger W. Dijkstra
We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it!
— Edsger Dijkstra
The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.
— Edsger Dijkstra
The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.
— Edsger Dijkstra
It is not the task of the University to offer what society asks for, but to give what society needs.
— Edsger Dijkstra
A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.
— Edsger Dijkstra
There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Beauty is our business.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Computer science has as much to do with computers as astronomy has to do with telescopes.
— Edsger Dijkstra
I don't need to waste my time with a computer just because I am a computer scientist.
— Edsger Dijkstra
The problems of the real world are primarily those you are left with when you refuse to apply their effective solutions.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Teaching to unsuspecting youngsters the effective use of formal methods is one of the joys of life because it is so extremely rewarding.
— Edsger Dijkstra
The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world's richest source of rewarding challenges.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.
— Edsger Dijkstra
If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as 'lines produced' but as 'lines spent.'
— Edsger Dijkstra
The effort of using machines to mimic the human mind has always struck me as rather silly. I would rather use them to mimic something better.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Thanks to the greatly improved possibility of communication, we overrate its importance. Even stronger, we underrate the importance of isolation.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Several people have told me that my inability to suffer fools gladly is one of my main weaknesses.
— Edsger Dijkstra
When building sand castles on the beach, we can ignore the waves but should watch the tide.
— Edsger Dijkstra
There is very little point in trying to urge the world to mend its ways as long as that world is still convinced that its ways are perfectly adequate.
— Edsger Dijkstra
If there is one 'scientific' discovery I am proud of, it is the discovery of the habit of writing without publication in mind.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Don't compete with me: firstly, I have more experience, and secondly, I have chosen the weapons.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!
— Edsger W. Dijkstra
Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code.
— Edsger W. Dijkstra
The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Probably I am very naive, but I also think I prefer to remain so, at least for the time being and perhaps for the rest of my life.
— Edsger Dijkstra
The prisoner falls in love with his chains.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology.
— Edsger Dijkstra
I would therefore like to posit that computing's central challenge, how not to make a mess of it, has not yet been met.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Brainpower is by far our scarcest resource.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because thy require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.
— Edsger W. Dijkstra
The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim.
— Edsger Dijkstra
If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Much of the excitement we get out of our work is that we don't really know what we are doing.
— Edsger Dijkstra
In the software business there are many enterprises for which it is not clear that science can help them; that science should try is not clear either.
— Edsger Dijkstra
PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Mentally mutilated potential programmers beyond hope of regeneration.
— Edsger Dijkstra
The tools we use have a profound and devious influence on our thinking habits, and therefore on our thinking abilities.
— Edsger Dijkstra
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
— Edsger W. Dijkstra
