Edsger W. Dijkstra Quotes & Sayings
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Brainpower is by far our scarcest resource. —
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

I don't need to waste my time with a computer just because I am a computer scientist. —
Edsger Dijkstra

Thank goodness we don't have only serious problems, but ridiculous ones as well. —
Edsger Dijkstra

The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense. —
Edsger W. Dijkstra

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. —
Edsger W. Dijkstra

The tools we use have a profound and devious influence on our thinking habits, and therefore on our thinking abilities. —
Edsger Dijkstra

We must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it! —
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

The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings. —
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

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

Experience does by no means automatically leads to wisdom and understanding. —
Edsger Dijkstra

Too few people recognize that the high technology so celebrated today is essentially a mathematical technology. —
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

A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits. —
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

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

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

Mentally mutilated potential programmers beyond hope of regeneration. —
Edsger Dijkstra

PL/1, the fatal disease, belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set. —
Edsger Dijkstra