“Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a quality that decides between success and failure.”
1990s
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Edsger W. Dijkstra 68
Dutch computer scientist 1930–2002Related quotes

“In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a simple necessity.”
Niklaus Wirth (1997) " A Few Words with Niklaus Wirth http://www.eptacom.net/pubblicazioni/pub_eng/wirth.html". Dr Carlo Pescio eds. June 1997.

“Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries.”
Quoted from Motley's conversation by his friend Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1858), ch. 6, p. 143.

“The gap between success and failure is reason based on reality.”
Quoted from his speech during the launch for his book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_As_The_World_Masterpiece, "Reason as the World Masterpiece" https://www.amazon.co.uk/REASON-AS-WORLD-MASTERPIECE-UGANDAS/dp/9970652001 in Kampala, Book launch Speach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKAoWtWgP2U (March 10 2021)
2020s
“The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success and failure.”

“The line between failure and success is so fine… that we are often on the line and do not know it.”

Comment on Sidney Poitier, as quoted in a press release at AARP (24 July 2008) http://cq5.share.aarp.org/aarp/presscenter/pressrelease/articles/exclusive_hollywood_legend_sidney_poitier_opens_up.html

“There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all.”
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Love Minus Zero/No Limit

“Elegance is not an outer quality, but a part of the soul that is visible to others.”
Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), About Elegance