Donald Knuth

"The most important principle for the good algorithm designer is to refuse to be content."

"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

"We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil."

"The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency."

"I think of my work as play, and I think of play as work."

"An algorithm must be seen to be believed."

"The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive because it can be made quite amusing."

"Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs: instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want the computer to do."

"I would rather write programs to write programs than write programs."

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil; but lack of planning is the root of all mediocrity."

"The problem of Computer Science is that it is not really about computers, and it is not really a science."

"A person unfamiliar with music theory need not feel embarrassed, as the author was in the same predicament."

"Literate programming is a methodology that combines a programming language with a documentation language."

"Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the individual steps are easy, but the combination of steps is elaborate and demands care."

"The real problem is that programming requires attention to detail, and humans are not naturally good at details."

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant."

"I have discovered that the good things and the bad things are of approximately equal quantity; that almost every advantage has an almost equal disadvantage attached to it."

"Men are not fully cognizant of their strengths until they are told."

"The real problem is patience and perseverance in the face of difficulty."

"When you make the finding yourself, even if you're the last person on Earth to see it, you still get the pleasure of making the discovery."

"Digital typography is very important for the future of humanity."

"I think the real problem is that programming requires a kind of thinking that is both algorithmic and creative."

"The most profound technologies are those that disappear."

"Errors are not mere slips of the pen, but reveal a much deeper malady."

"I am always pleased when I make a mistake because I learn from it."

"The most important resource we have is time."

"It is better to do nothing than to do something wrong."

"Beauty and truth usually come together in mathematics and science."

"A programmer is a person who passes as an exacting expert on the system, picture, or activity of question."