...the better the software, the fewer lines of code

A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

A designer knows he's achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.

Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Anyone who puts a small gloss on a fundamental technology, calls it proprietary, and then tries to keep others from building on it, is a thief.

Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

Considering the current sad state of our computer programs, software development is clearly still a black art, and cannot yet be called an engineering discipline.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.

He who hasn't hacked assembly langauge as a youth has no heart. He who does so as an adult has no brain.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend 6 hours sharpening an axe.

If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.

In an imperfect world, software can be an island of perfection. Software does exactly what the programmer tells it to do;

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

Microsoft, where quality is job 1.1

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.

Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming: testing is the treatment.

Testing can show the presence of errors, but not their absence.

That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers.

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.

The unavoidable price of reliability is simplicity.

We shall do a much better programming job, provided we approach the task with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the task as very humble programmers.