I have never seen an experienced programmer who routinely made detailed flow charts before beginning to write programs.

Dissertations are not finished; they are abandoned.

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

To only a fraction of the human race does God give the privilege of earning one's bread doing what one would have gladly pursued free, for passion.

One can expect the human race to continue attempting systems just within or just beyond our reach; and software systems are perhaps the most intricate and complex of man's handiworks. The management of this complex craft will demand our best use of new languages and systems, our best adaptation of proven engineering management methods, liberal doses of common sense, and a God-given humility to recognize our fallibility and limitations.

The boss must first distinguish between action information and status information. He must discipline himself not to act on problems his managers can solve, and never to act on problems when he is explicitly reviewing status.

Conceptual integrity is the most important consideration in system design.