Edsger Dijkstra Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.”

“Mathematicians are like managers - they want improvement without change.”

“Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.”

“If 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself: 'Dijkstra would not have liked this', well that would be enough immortality for me.”

“The traditional mathematician recognizes and appreciates mathematical elegance when he sees it. I propose to go one step further, and to consider elegance an essential ingredient of mathematics: if it is clumsy, it is not mathematics.”

“The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.”

“Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.”

“About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.”

“I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection.”

“Don't compete with me: firstly, I have more experience, and secondly, I have chosen the weapons.”