ricardo6 / cs_quotes Goto Github PK

A list of my most liked computer science related quotes in a special text format used by signify. Signify is a program to generate semi-random signatures and can be used to show a quote of the day, e.g. whenever you login.

To use it just copy the file into your home directory as ~/.signify and append to your .bashrc file the command "signify".

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Computing science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. - Edsger W. Dijkstra
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I don’t need to waste my time with a computer just because I am a computer scientist. - Edsger W. Dijkstra
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The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense. - Edsger W. Dijkstra
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The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. - Richard Hamming
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People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that build on each other, like a wall of mini stones. - Donald Knuth
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Einstein argued that there must be simplified explanations of nature, because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer. - Fred Brooks
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Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a quality that decides between success and failure. - Edsger W. Dijkstra
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If, ten 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,” that would be enough immortality for me. - Edsger W. Dijkstra
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When we had no computers, we had no programming problem either. When we had a few computers, we had a mild programming problem. Confronted with machines a million times as powerful, we are faced with a gigantic programming problem. - Edsger W. Dijkstra
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Some problems are better evaded than solved. - C. A. R. Hoare
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Software is not limited by physics, like buildings are. It is limited by imagination, by design, by organization. In short, it is limited by properties of people, not by properties of the world. - Ralph Johnson
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A list is only as strong as its weakest link. - Donald Knuth
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C++ is history repeated as tragedy. Java is history repeated as farce. - Scott McKay
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One man’s constant is another man’s variable. - Alan J. Perils
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We read Knuth so you don’t have to. - Tim Peters
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A language that doesn’t have everything is actually easier to program in than some that do. - Dennis M. Ritchie
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Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming. - Brian W. Kernighan
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Anyone who considers arithmetic methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. - John Von Neumann
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The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before. - Bill Gates
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Software is like entropy: It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the Second Law of Thermodynamics; i.e., it always increases. - Norman Augustine
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Software is a gas; it expands to fill its container. - Nathan Myhrvold
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Imagination is more important than knowledge.  For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. - Albert Einstein
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The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
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If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. - Linus Torvalds
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If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as ‘lines produced’ but as ‘lines spent.’ - Edsger Dijkstra
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Program testing can be a very effective way to show the presence of bugs, but is hopelessly inadequate for showing their absence. - Edsger Dijkstra
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There are only two things wrong with C++:  The initial concept and the implementation. - Bertrand Meyer
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UNIX is simple.  It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity. - Dennis Ritchie
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I am not out to destroy Microsoft, that would be a completely unintended side effect. - Linus Torvalds
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More good code has been written in languages denounced as "bad" than in languages proclaimed "wonderful" -much more. - Bjarne Stroustrup
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Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.  - Donald Knuth
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Inside every well-written large program is a well-written small program. C.A.R. Hoare
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The one who insists on never uttering an error must remain silent. - W. Heisenberg
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The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. - R. Hamming
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We flew down weekly to meet with IBM, but they thought the way to measure software was the amount of code we wrote, when really the better the software, the fewer lines of code. - Bill Gates
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I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone. - Bjarne Stroustrup
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C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do, it blows your whole leg off. - Bjarne Stroustrup
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There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third works. - Alan J. Perlis
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To iterate is human, to recurse divine. - L. Peter Deutsch
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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. - Pablo Picasso
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The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim. - Edsger W. Dijkstra
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Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight. - Bill Gates
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Unix never says "please." - Rob Pike
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There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses. - Bjarne Stroustrup
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Within C++, there is a much smaller and cleaner language struggling to get out. - Bjarne Stroustrup
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Being abstract is something profoundly different from being vague... 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
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Considering the current sad state of our computer programs, software development is clearly still a black art, and cannot yet be called an engineering discipline. - Bill Clinton
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