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

… what society overwhelmingly asks for is snake oil. Of course, the snake oil has the most impressive names — otherwise you would be selling nothing — like “Structured Analysis and Design”, “Software Engineering”, “Maturity Models”, “Management Information Systems”, “Integrated Project Support Environments” “Object Orientation” and “Business Process Re-engineering”.

A most important, but also most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits of those who train themselves in its use. If the tool is a programming language this influence is, whether we like it or not, an influence on our thinking habits.... A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.

Please don't fall into the trap of believing that I am terribly dogmatical about the go to statement. I have the uncomfortable feeling that others are making a religion out of it, as if the conceptual problems of programming could be solved by a single trick, by a simple form of coding discipline!

Beware of "the real world". A speaker's apeal to it is always an invitation not to challenge his tacit assumptions.

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

Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.