The hardest thing is to go to sleep at night, when there are so many urgent things needing to be done. A huge gap exists between what we know is possible with today's machines and what we have so far been able to finish.

When you write a program, think of it primarily as a work of literature. You're trying to write something that human beings are going to read. Don't think of it primarily as something a computer is going to follow. The more effective you are at making your program readable, the more effective it's going to be: You'll understand it today, you'll understand it next week, and your successors who are going to maintain and modify it will understand it.

Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers to execute.

Meta-design is much more difficult than design; it's easier to draw something than to explain how to draw it.

The important thing, once you have enough to eat and a nice house, is what you can do for others, what you can contribute to the enterprise as a whole.

I can’t go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at the fonts on the menu.

The best practice is inspired by theory.