“FORTRAN's tragic fate has been its wide acceptance, mentally chaining thousands and thousands of programmers to our past mistakes.”
1970s, The Humble Programmer (1972)
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Edsger W. Dijkstra68
Dutch computer scientist 1930–2002Related quotes
Peter Kropotkin book The Conquest of Bread
Source: The Conquest of Bread (1892), Ch. 1 : Our Riches, p. 57
“War its thousands slays, Peace its ten thousands.”
Beilby Porteus (1731–1809) Bishop of Chester; Bishop of London
Source: Death: A Poetical Essay (1759), Line 178.
“A thousand forms and passions glow
Upon the world-wide canvas.”
Francis Turner Palgrave (1824–1897) English poet and critic
The Ancient And Modern Muses
Context: A thousand forms and passions glow
Upon the world-wide canvas. So
With larger scope our art we ply;
And if the crown be harder won,
Diviner rays around it run,
With strains of fuller harmony.
Julian Huxley (1887–1975) English biologist, philosopher, author
Transhumanism (1957)
Context: As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future. This cosmic self-awareness is being realized in one tiny fragment of the universe — in a few of us human beings. Perhaps it has been realized elsewhere too, through the evolution of conscious living creatures on the planets of other stars. But on this our planet, it has never happened before.
Pol Pot (1925–1998) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea
Interview with Robert Whytman for The Guardian (11 December 1979)
Eric Temple Bell (1883–1960) mathematician and science fiction author born in Scotland who lived in the United States for most of his li…
Source: The Development of Mathematics (1940), p. 283
Context: The mistakes and unresolved difficulties of the past in mathematics have always been the opportunities of its future; and should analysis ever appear to be without or blemish, its perfection might only be that of death.