In software systems, it is often the early bird that makes the worm. — Alan J. Perlis from Epigrams on Programming

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

Re graphics: A picture is worth 10K words — but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures. — Alan J. Perlis

There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. It demands the same skill, devotion, insight, and even inspiration as the discovery of the simple physical laws which underlie the complex phenomena of nature. It also requires a willingness to accept objectives which are limited by physical, logical, and technological constraints, and to accept a compromise when conflicting objectives cannot be met. No committee will ever do this until it is too late. … The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity. It is a price which the very rich find most hard to pay. — C.A.R. Hoare

Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming. — C. A. R. Hoare

Some problems are better evaded than solved. — C. A. R. Hoare

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

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming. — Brian W. Kernighan

The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world’s richest source of rewarding challenges. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity; and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things. - Sir Isaac Newton

The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility, and among other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

I don’t know how many of you have ever met Dijkstra, but you probably know that arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstras — Alan Kay

We should forget about small efficiences, say, about 97% of the time. Premature optimization is the root of all evil. — Donald Knuth

Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster. — Niklaus E. Wirth (Wirth’s Law)

Whenever a major organization develops a new system as an official standard for X, the primary result is the widespread adoption of some simpler system as a de facto standard for X. - John F. Sowa (Sowa’s Law of Standards)

… we do not consider it as good engineering practice to consume a resource lavishly just because it happens to be cheap. — Niklaus E. Wirth

Every program has (at least) two purposes: the one for which it was written, and another for which it wasn’t. — Alan J. Perlis

Object oriented programs are offered as alternatives to correct ones — Edsger W. Dijkstra

A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant. — Alan J. Perlis

Lisp has jokingly been called “the most intelligent way to misuse a computer.” I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts. – Edsger Dijkstra

All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection… Except for the problem of too many layers of indirection. — David Wheeler

Everybody has a testing environment. Some people are lucky enough to have a totally separate environment to run production in. - Michael Stahnke

There are 2 hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-1 errors — ?

Most of you are familiar with the virtues of a programmer. There are three, of course: laziness, impatience, and hubris. — Larry Wall

It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets. — Alan Cooper

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. — Rick Cook

The three most dangerous things in the world are a programmer with a soldering iron, a hardware type with a program patch and a user with an idea. — Rick Cook

Without requirements or design, programming is the art of adding bugs to an empty text file. – Louis Srygley

Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time. — Terry Pratchett

Oh, I’ve certainly never been short of pleasure. Do you know what real pleasure is? A creative act. A pleasure without creativity is dead boring. – Gianni Agnelli

A thing done well can be done better. – Gianni Agnelli

Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there – William Zinsser

Writing is thinking on paper — William Zinsser

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers and the corollary He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked. – Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)