I would therefore like to posit that computing's central challenge, how not to make a mess of it, has not yet been met.

The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.

Mentally mutilated potential programmers beyond hope of regeneration.

If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as "lines produced" but as "lines spent."

Why has elegance found so little following? That is the reality of it. Elegance has the disadvantage, if that's what it is, that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it.

The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.

There is very little point in trying to urge the world to mend its ways as long as that world is still convinced that its ways are perfectly adequate.