... as a slow-witted human being I have a very small head and I had better learn to live with it and to respect my limitations and give them full credit, rather than to try to ignore them, for the latter vain effort will be punished by failure.

Don't blame me for the fact that competent programming, as I view it as an intellectual possibility, will be too difficult for the average programmer, you must not fall into the trap of rejecting a surgical technique because it is beyond the capabilities of the barber in his shop around the corner.

Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.

Testing shows the presence, not the absence of bugs.

A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.

Computer science has as much to do with computers as astronomy has to do with telescopes.

Teaching COBOL ought to be regarded as a criminal act.