A programming language is low level when its programs require attention to the irrelevant.

It is better to have 100 functions operate on one data structure than to have 10 functions operate on 10 data structures.

Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.

Every reader should ask himself periodically “Toward what end, toward what end?”—but do not ask it too often lest you pass up the fun of programming for the constipation of bittersweet philosophy.

When a professor insists computer science is X but not Y, have compassion for his graduate students.

In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.

Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.