Quote: The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: 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 Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Don't compete with me: firstly, I have more experience, and secondly, I have chosen the weapons. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: If 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself: 'Dijkstra would not have liked this', well that would be enough immortality for me. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Many mathematicians derive part of their self-esteem by feeling themselves the proud heirs of a long tradition of rational thinking; I am afraid they idealize their cultural ancestors. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Mathematicians are like managers - they want improvement without change. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence! [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: Teaching to unsuspecting youngsters the effective use of formal methods is one of the joys of life because it is so extremely rewarding. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids clever tricks like the plague.
[Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world's richest source of rewarding challenges. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: The students that, like the wild animal being prepared for its tricks in the circus called "life", expects only training as sketched above, will be severely disappointed: by his standards he will learn next to nothing. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: The traditional mathematician recognizes and appreciates mathematical elegance when he sees it. I propose to go one step further, and to consider elegance an essential ingredient of mathematics: if it is clumsy, it is not mathematics. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]
Quote: There should be no such thing as boring mathematics. [Edsger Wybe Dijkstra]