“The reason is not to glorify "bit chasing"; a more fundamental issue is at stake here: Numerical subroutines should deliver results that satisfy simple, useful mathematical laws whenever possible.”
[...] Without any underlying symmetry properties, the job of proving interesting results becomes extremely unpleasant. The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work.
Vol. II, Seminumerical Algorithms, Section 4.2.2 part A, final paragraph [Italics in source]
The Art of Computer Programming (1968–2011)
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Donald Ervin Knuth 32
American computer scientist 1938Related quotes

The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, II, preliminary poem (1908)

Source: Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”
Variant: He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
Source: Don't Waste Your Life

“The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.”
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
Book III, 27
Variant translations:
The more corrupt the state, the more laws.
And now bills were passed, not only for national objects but for individual cases, and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.
Annals (117)

The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature (1963)
Context: It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of a mathematical theory of great beauty and power, needing quite a high standard of mathematics for one to understand it. You may wonder: Why is nature constructed along these lines? One can only answer that our present knowledge seems to show that nature is so constructed. We simply have to accept it. One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe. Our feeble attempts at mathematics enable us to understand a bit of the universe, and as we proceed to develop higher and higher mathematics we can hope to understand the universe better.
“The more corrupt a society, the more numerous its laws.”
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)