Bjarne Stroustrup

"People sometimes ask me if it is a sin to program in C++. It is not, but it is dangerous."

"The primary purpose of a programming language is to help the programmer think about programs."

"I encourage you to take the high road. That's where I try to stay."

"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it."

"Code that is ugly is hard to understand. Code that is hard to understand is buggy."

"The best software is elegant, which usually means that it solves a hard problem in a simple way."

"Trust, but verify. This is especially true for anything not written by you."

"Most of the best programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation, but because it is fun to program."

"The amount of time and effort it takes to fix a bug is often proportional to the time it took to introduce it."

"Writing good code is as much about style as about substance."

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."

"If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as lines produced but as lines spent."

"A change of scene is the best medicine for the weary mind."

"The most important talent for a programmer is the ability to recognize what not to do."

"Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve."

"If you don't fail, you're not trying hard enough."

"The purpose of software engineering is to control complexity, not to create it."

"I think that one way to be original is to be yourself. That is hard for most people."

"In the rush to code, architecture often gets left behind."

"The really good programmers spend a lot of time programming. They also spend a lot of time reading other people's code."

"Perfection is achieved not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing left to take away."

"The best practice is to keep evolving. Just when people think your language is perfect, move on."

"Design and programming are not about getting instructions to execute on a machine. They're about conveying intent."

"The greatest strength is in acknowledging our weaknesses."

"I would bet that the ability to solve problems is far more important than specific technical knowledge."

"When you write code for others to read, you are not just writing code, you are writing a form of communication."

"The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it."

"Knowing what not to do is as valuable as knowing what to do."

"I believe that one of the most important characteristics of a good leader is humility."

"The worst feature in any language is the one that other people disagree about."