... 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.

Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.

Mentally mutilated potential programmers beyond hope of regeneration.

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.

In the software business there are many enterprises for which it is not clear that science can help them; that science should try is not clear either.

If you want more effective programmers, you will discover that they should not waste their time debugging, they should not introduce the bugs to start with.

Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code.