Edsger Dijkstra Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“Many mathematicians derive part of their self-esteem by feeling themselves the proud heirs of a long tradition of rational thinking; I am afraid they idealize their cultural ancestors.”

“The students that, like the wild animal being prepared for its tricks in the circus called 'life', expects only training as sketched above, will be severely disappointed: by his standards he will learn next to nothing.”

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

“The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world's richest source of rewarding challenges.”

“Why has elegance found so little following? That is the reality of it. Elegance has the disadvantage, if that's what it is, that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it.”

“APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums.”