Grace Hopper

"The most important thing I've accomplished, other than building the compiler, is training young people. They come in knowing nothing about COBOL, and I leave them knowing nothing about COBOL."

"A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

"Don't do something better than before, do something different."

"The most dangerous phrase in the language is, 'we've always done it this way.'"

"Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, 'We've always done it this way.' I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise."

"I always tried to do the very best I could."

"You don't manage people. You manage things. You lead people."

"Programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a fascinating intellectual challenge."

"If you can understand the details, you can understand anything."

"The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create."

"Individuals are limited, but the moment you get a committee, you can get much bigger things done."

"I kept coming back to doing the same things because they were fun, and it's important that you do things because they're fun."

"If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than it is to get permission."

"Nanosecond: the time it takes light to travel about 11.8 inches."

"I have always been more interested in the future than in preserving the past."

"One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them."

"We should have had the courage of our convictions from the very beginning."

"I always liked the top of the key - I was a very good defensive player."

"The wonderful thing about standards is that we have so many of them to choose from."

"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done."

"The most important thing to remember about computers is that they are machines."

"Life was simple before World War II. After that, we still had time, but this time was getting continuously shorter."

"I've always been an optimist."

"We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question."

"Even the smallest computer has memories and even the largest computer has limitations."

"I believe in getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean."

"Management is nothing more or less than motivating other people."

"It's often easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."

"You don't really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother."

"Whoever said you can't go home again, they didn't have a family like mine."