The hardest part of the software task is arriving at a complete and consistent specification, and much of the essence of building a program is in fact the debugging of the specification.

Predictability and great design are not friends.

Scientists build to learn; Engineers learn to build.

Originality is no excuse for ignorance.

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.

Software and hardware design is less different than software designers think, but more different than hardware designers think.

Dissertations are not finished; they are abandoned.