...when fits of creativity run strong, more than one programmer or writer has been known to abandon the desktop for the more spacious floor.

Men and months are interchangeable commodities only when a task can be partitioned among many workers with no communication among them.

There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order-of-magnitude improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity.

Adjusting to the requirement for perfection is, I think, the most difficult part of learning to program.

...when fits of creativity run strong, more than one programmer or writer has been known to abandon the desktop for the more spacious floor.

How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.

A computer program is a message from a man to a machine. The rigidly marshaled syntax and the scrupulous definitions all exist to make intention clear to the dumb engine.