Grace Hopper

"The machine doesn't know you're not sure."

"I would tell them, you can do a lot of things, but you have to have an open mind."

"Leadership is something you earn."

"I thought being a mathematician would be fun, and it was."

"The most important thing I've accomplished, besides building the compiler, is training young people. They're my most important contribution to the future."

"I always tell my students: Don't worry about other people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."

"Programming is not about typing, it's about thinking."

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

"Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems."

"I kept a hundred and fifty pounds of reference books in the back seat of my car. That was my search engine."

"You manage things; you lead people. I like to think we manage work and lead people."

"No computer is infallible, but humans are even more fallible."

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

"The computer should do the work. That's what it's for."

"I used to be a teacher of mathematics, and I've always felt that mathematics is the underlying structure of thought."

"Sailing around the world is one of the things that most people think is too difficult for them. But it can be done."

"I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I'm rooting for the dogs."

"The way we have always done it is no way to do anything at all."

"If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. You will get forgiveness, but you will never get permission."

"We're really in a mess because we were trained by IBM."

"It is often better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission."

"Let me tell you what I think about your way of life. You are living in a technological daze, as is all the rest of the world."

"I had been engaged to mathematics as if it were a bride. When I was young, I was actually going to be married to mathematics."

"Being a first means you will have to put up with a lot of nonsense."

"We always like people who admire us, but we do not always like the people we admire."

"I think the most important thing I've accomplished is training young people."

"One thing I have learned is that the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between."

"The future is now. But are we truly ready for it?"

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

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