Edsger Dijkstra Quotes

"Legacy code" often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling.

I hate being wrong, and I hate when people give up.

Software Engineering might be science; but that's not what I do. I'm a hacker, not an engineer.

Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.

I'm a perfectionist. I'm not going to cheat the people.

I do things right. No shortcuts.

Software eventually and necessarily gained the same respect as any other discipline.

If the whole world followed you, would you be pleased with where you took it?

Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery of the very best that you can do. It does not matter what others think, it is of prime importance, however, what you think about you. You can never do your best, which should always be your trademark, if you are cutting corners and shirking responsibilities. You are special. Act it. Never neglect the little things.

There may often be excuse for doing things poorly in this world, but there is never any excuse for calling a poorly done thing, well done.

Curiously enough, it is often the people who refuse to assume any responsibility who are apt to be the sharpest critics of those who do.

To sit in judgment of those things which you perceive to be wrong or imperfect is to be one more person who is part of judgment, evil or imperfection.

Don’t nurture a sense of guilt; rather, nurture a sense of responsibility married with a sense of humility.

Always think about how a piece of code should be used: good interfaces are the essence of good code. You can hide all kinds of clever and dirty code behind a good interface if you really need such code.

It is easy to be a moral perfectionist when one is politically unaccountable.

Before one blames, one should always find out whether one cannot excuse.

With hindsight, it is always easy to blame everyone else.

For what I have publish'd, I can only hope to be pardon'd; but for what I have burned, I deserve to be prais'd.

That is one of the Law's purposes, of course: to test the qualities of those who choose to employ it.

America is not what's wrong with the world.

When you point your finger 'cause your plan fell through You got three more fingers pointing back at you!

m doing my best" "no,this isn't your best. We shall recognize your best when it appears

C++ is a horrible language. It's made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it's much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it.

There is nothing that will kill a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself.

Leaders should be the chief repenters.