Quotes about program
page 7

Tom Rath photo

“At its fundamentally flawed core, the aim of almost any learning program is to help us become who we are not… From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to our shortcomings than to our strengths.”

Tom Rath (1975) American author

As cited in: Patrick Hollingworth (2016), The Light and Fast Organisation. p. 156
StrengthsFinder 2.0, 2007

Linus Torvalds photo

“An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Linux 1.3.53 CodingStyle documentation, 2011-08-13, 1995 https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/process/coding-style.rst,
1990s, 1995-99

Christopher Titus photo
Edward R. Murrow photo
Leo Igwe photo
John McCarthy photo
Edwin Boring photo
Heinrich Himmler photo

“I also want to talk to you, quite frankly, on a very grave matter. Among ourselves it should be mentioned quite frankly, and yet we will never speak of it publicly. Just as we did not hesitate on June 30th, 1934 to do the duty we were bidden, and stand comrades who had lapsed, up against the wall and shoot them, so we have never spoken about it and will never [p. 65] speak of it. It was that tact which is a matter of course and which I am glad to say, is inherent in us, that made us never discuss it among ourselves, never to speak of it. It appalled everyone, and yet everyone was certain that he would do it the next time if such orders are issued and if it is necessary. I mean the evacuation out of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race. It's one of those things it is easy to talk about - "The Jewish race is being exterminated", says one party member, "that's quite clear, it's in our program - elimination  of the Jews, and we're doing it, exterminating them." And then they come, 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. Of course the others are vermin, but this one is an A-1 Jew. Not one of all those who talk this way has witnessed it, not one of them has been through it. Most of you must know what it means when 100 corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1000. To have stuck it out and at the same time - apart from exceptions caused by human weakness - to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be [p. 66] written, for we know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves, if - with the bombing raids, the burdens and the deprivations of war - we still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators and trouble-mongers. We would now probably have reached the 1916/17 stage when the Jews were still in the German national body.”

Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945) Nazi officer, Commander of the SS

The Posen speech to SS officers (4 October 1943), original translation from "International Military Trials - Nurnberg Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Volume IV", US Govt Printing Offc 1946 pp. 563-4.

Erik Naggum photo

“Rewarding incompetence and ignorance increases the number of incompetent programmers. Designing programming languages and tools so incompetent programmers can feel better about themselves is not the way to go.”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

Re: New Lisp ? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.functional/msg/b69c767370ee7c43 (Usenet article).
Usenet articles, Miscellaneous

Philip Kotler photo

“Marketing management is the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of programs designed to create, build, and maintain beneficial exchanges with target buyers for the purpose of achieving organizational objectives.”

Philip Kotler (1931) American marketing author, consultant and professor

Philip Kotler (1993), as cited in: Gerald A. Cole (2003), Strategic Management, p. 131

Alan Cox photo

“A Computer is a state machine. Threads are for people who can't program state machines.”

Alan Cox (1968) British computer programmer

Re: Alan Cox quote? (was: Re: accounting for threads) http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0106.2/0405.html.

Francis Escudero photo
Fred Brooks photo
Antonio Negri photo
Ward Cunningham photo
Rick Perry photo
A. James Gregor photo
Andrew Dickson White photo
C. A. R. Hoare photo
Francis Escudero photo
Pat Condell photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Larry Wall photo

“If you want your program to be readable, consider supplying the argument.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

In the perl man page.
Documentation

Nicholas Sparks photo
John Backus photo
Friedrich Stadler photo
Susan Sontag photo
Huey P. Newton photo
Rasmus Lerdorf photo

“I do care about memory leaks but I still don't find programming enjoyable.”

Rasmus Lerdorf (1968) Danish programmer and creator of PHP

@rasmus http://twitter.com/rasmus/statuses/7636370468

Erik Naggum photo

“I have a cat, so I know that when she digs her very sharp claws into my chest or stomach it's really a sign of affection, but I don't see any reason for programming languages to show affection with pain.”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

Re: defmacro question http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/6cd5295c9b463d0a (Usenet article).
Usenet articles, Miscellaneous

Adolf Eichmann photo

“The war with the Soviet Union began in June 1941, I think. And I believe it was two months later, or maybe three, that Heydrich sent for me. I reported. He said to me: "The Führer has ordered physical extermination." These were his words. And as though wanting to test their effect on me, he made a long pause, which was not at all his way. I can still remember that. In the first moment, I didn't grasp the implications, because he chose his words so carefully. But then I understood. I didn't say anything, what could I say? Because I'd never thought of a … of such a thing, of that sort of violent solution. … Anyway, Heydrich said: "Go and see Globocnik, the Führer has already given him instructions. Take a look and see how he's getting on with his program. I believe he's using Russian anti-tank trenches for exterminating the Jews." As ordered, I went to Lublin, located the headquarters of SS and Police Commander Globocnik, and reported to the Gruppenführer. I told him Heydrich had sent me, because the Führer had ordered the physical extermination of the Jews. … Globocnik sent for a certain Sturmbannführer Höfle, who must have been a member of his staff. We went from Lublin to, I don't remember what the place was called, I get them mixed up, I couldn't say if it was Treblinka or some other place. There were patches of woods, sort of, and the road passed through — a Polish highway. On the right side of the road there was an ordinary house, that's where the men who worked there lived. A captain of the Ordnungspolizei welcomed us. A few workmen were still there. The captain, which surprised me, had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, somehow he seemed to have joined in the work. They were building little wooden shacks, two, maybe three of them; they looked like two- or three-room cottages. Höfle told the police captain to explain the installation to me. And then he started in. He had a, well, let's say, a vulgar, uncultivated voice. Maybe he drank. He spoke some dialect from the southwestern corner of Germany, and he told me how he had made everything airtight. It seems they were going to hook up a Russian submarine engine and pipe the exhaust into the houses and the Jews inside would be poisoned.
I was horrified. My nerves aren't strong enough … I can't listen to such things… such things, without their affecting me. Even today, if I see someone with a deep cut, I have to look away. I could never have been a doctor. I still remember how I visualized the scene and began to tremble, as if I'd been through something, some terrible experience. The kind of thing that happens sometimes and afterwards you start to shake. Then I went to Berlin and reported to the head of the Security Police.”

Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer

Source: Eichmann Interrogated (1983), p. 75 - 76.

Sergei Akhromeyev photo

“If it is necessary we will find a quick answer and it will not be the way the United States expects it. It will be an answer that devalues the 'Star Wars' program.”

Sergei Akhromeyev (1923–1991) Soviet marshal

1986 UPI (Moscow) press release on Soviet reaction to the Strategic Defense Initiative. Quoted in Ellensburg Daily Record, 27 Aug 1986, and elsewhere.

“Everything is hunky-dory and your program works fine.”

Paul DiLascia (1959–2008) American software developer

1995/12
Misc

Erik Naggum photo

“Well, take it from an old hand: the only reason it would be easier to program in C is that you can't easily express complex problems in C, so you don't.”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

Re: new to lisp (3rd time lucky) http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/ef9b57ecc5555931 (Usenet article).
Usenet articles

Aron Ra photo
Hans Haacke photo
Ashraf Pahlavi photo
Niklaus Wirth photo

“Reliable and transparent programs are usually not in the interest of the designer.”

Niklaus Wirth (1934) Swiss computer scientist

Niklaus Wirth (1999) " A Digital Contrarian Retires http://www.modulaware.com/mdlt/mdlt79.htm". Beat Gerber eds., June 1999.

Bruce Schneier photo

“In China, programs have to be certified by the government in order to be used on computers there, which sounds an awful lot like the Apple store.”

Bruce Schneier (1963) American computer scientist

[Schneier, Bruce (speaker), 19 June 2013, 2013, Bruce Schneier: Talks at Google, English, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3NJ-Ow2Lvg, 18:56, Google Inc.]

Kent Beck photo
Bernie Sanders photo
Grady Booch photo

“The influence of consumerism has led us to confuse institutions for people, means for the mission, and programs for the Spirit's power.”

The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)

Russell L. Ackoff photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“On their own, new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for freedom and progress, but the United States does. We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas. […] The internet can help bridge divides between people of different faiths. As the President said in Cairo, freedom of religion is central to the ability of people to live together. And as we look for ways to expand dialogue, the internet holds out such tremendous promise. […] We are also supporting the development of new tools that enable citizens to exercise their rights of free expression by circumventing politically motivated censorship. We are providing funds to groups around the world to make sure that those tools get to the people who need them in local languages, and with the training they need to access the internet safely. The United States has been assisting in these efforts for some time, with a focus on implementing these programs as efficiently and effectively as possible. Both the American people and nations that censor the internet should understand that our government is committed to helping promote internet freedom. We want to put these tools in the hands of people who will use them to advance democracy and human rights, to fight climate change and epidemics, to build global support for President Obama's goal of a world without nuclear weapons, to encourage sustainable economic development that lifts the people at the bottom up.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

"Remarks on Internet Freedom", The Newseum, Washington, DC, January 21, 2010 http://web.archive.org/web/20100123145341/http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135519.htm
Secretary of State (2009–2013)

George W. Bush photo

“I like the observation that Forth is an amplifier: a good programmer can write a great program; a bad programmer a terrible one. I feel no need to cater to bad programmers.”

Quoted in Naomi Hamilton, "The A-Z of Programming Languages: Forth," http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;766897508 Computerworld (2008-06-27)

George Dantzig photo
Seymour Papert photo
John McCarthy photo
Ted Koppel photo

“This is an industry, it's a business. We exist to make money. We exist to put commercials on the air. The programming that is put on between those commercials is simply the bait we put in the mousetrap.”

Ted Koppel (1940) television journalist

http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/tv/mmx-0511200452nov20,0,991635.story?coll=mmx-television_heds

Bea Arthur photo
Bill Gates photo

“The worst programs are the ones where the programmers doing the original work don't lay a solid foundation, and then they're not involved in the program in the future.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

Source: Interview from Programmers at Work (1986)

Anand Patwardhan photo
Alan Shepard photo

“I guess those of us who have been with NASA … kind of understand the tremendous excitement and thrills and celebrations and national pride that went with the Apollo program is just something you're not going to create again, probably until we go to Mars.”

Alan Shepard (1923–1998) American astronaut

James Endrst (July 8, 1994) "It's Been 25 Years Since We Took That Giant Leap For Mankind - Moon Odyssey", The Hartford Courant, p. B1.

Brian W. Kernighan photo

“Advice to students: Leap in and try things. If you succeed, you can have enormous influence. If you fail, you have still learned something, and your next attempt is sure to be better for it. Advice to graduates: Do something you really enjoy doing. If it isn’t fun to get up in the morning and do your job or your school program, you’re in the wrong field.”

Brian W. Kernighan (1942) Canadian computer scientist

"Leap In and Try Things: Interview with Brian Kernighan" https://web.archive.org/web/20110701151454/http://www.harmonyatwork.in/blog/2009/10/leap-in-and-try-things-brian-kernighan/ from Harmony at Work blog http://www.harmonyatwork.in/blog/.

Will Eisner photo
Paulo Freire photo

“Welfare programs as instruments of manipulation ultimately serve the end of conquest. They act as an anesthetic, distracting the oppressed from the true causes of their problems and from the concrete solutions of these problems.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 4, Manipulation

Jane Roberts photo
Peter F. Drucker photo
Wesley Clark photo
Francis Heylighen photo
Frances Kellor photo
A. Wayne Wymore photo

“After earning the PhD degree and acquiring some relatively extensive experience in digital computers… It was time to leave the University. The result of an extensive search for the right job was a family move to Arlington Heights, Illinois, where it was a short commute to the Research Laboratories of the Pure Oil Company at Crystal Lake. I was given the title of Mathematical and Computer Consultant. The Labs were set in a beautiful campus, the professional personnel were eager to learn what I had to teach and to include me in many interesting projects where my knowledge and skills could be put to good use. I was encouraged to initiate my own program of research. I went to work with enthusiasm.
The corporate headquarters of Pure Oil were located in down town Chicago. Pure Oil had been trying to install an IBM 705 computer system for all their accounting needs including calculation of all data necessary for the management of exploration, drilling, refining and distribution of oil products and even royalties to shareholders in oil wells. Typical for those early days, the programming team was in deep difficulties and needed help; they lacked adequate resources and suitable training. The Executive Vice President of Pure Oil, when he heard that there was a computer expert already on the payroll at the Crystal Lake lab, ended our family blissful dream and I was reassigned to the down town office.”

A. Wayne Wymore (1927–2011) American mathematician

Systems Movement: Autobiographical Retrospectives (2004)

Doron Zeilberger photo

“Programming is much much harder than doing mathematics.”

Doron Zeilberger (1950) Israeli mathematician

The Narrow-Minded and Ignorant Referee's Report [and Zeilberger's Response] of Zeilberger's Paper "Automaric CounTilings" that was rejected by Helene Barcelo and the Members of the Advisory Board [that includes(!) Enumeration Expert Mireille Bousquet-Melou] of the Journal of Combinatorial Theory-Series A.

Richard Dawkins photo
Fred Rogers photo
Kent Hovind photo
Brian Wilson photo
Richard Stallman photo
Donald Ervin Knuth photo
Wernher von Braun photo

“There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program: Your tax dollar will go farther.”

Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) German, later an American, aerospace engineer and space architect

Attributed in Reader's Digest (1961), and The Yale Book of Quotations (2006) edited by Fred R. Shapiro, p. 101

Neil Gaiman photo
Ann Richards photo
Basshunter photo

“The album is very different from the all the other albums today. First of all, the album was one year delayed because I wasn’t happy and every time I did an album it was unofficially finished. I had some time to listen to some new songs and plug into some music programs and discovered this new song and delayed the release for a month, because I wanted to update the new tracks to these new sounds I found… so then when I did that all the other songs sounded like crap compared to the new ones! So I said f*** this I need to reproduce the other ones as well. Then I scrapped a few songs and produced new ones. So to produce this album I pretty much produced maybe about 50 tracks and picked out the best of them. You know when you buy an album from a producer/artist, you kind of hear the same sound repeating in each song, you hear the same sound repeating, but this album is like every song is individual. Like you wont find two songs which have the same sound. Each song is completely different which I think kind of represents what I do because I produce everything and I love producing everything. Sometimes I’m in the mood to produce you know a dance song, sometimes I’m in the mood to produce an R&B song, it’s just interesting because I just want to show people that I can deliver to all ears.”

Guestlist interview with Ria Talsania (10 July 2013) https://guestlist.net/article/9219/catching-up-with-basshunter
Calling Time

“It was very uncomfortable as you tried to involve the jury into this shameful program by your artificial flirts.”

Róbert Puzsér (1974) hungarian publicist

Quotes from him, Csillag születik (talent show between 2011-2012)

Jim Hightower photo
Larry Wall photo
Sergey Nechayev photo
David Graeber photo
Paul Krugman photo

“The usual and basic Keynesian answer to recessions is a monetary expansion. But Keynes worried that even this might sometimes not be enough, particularly if a recession had been allowed to get out of hand and become a true depression. Once the economy is deeply depressed, households and especially firms may be unwilling to increase spending no matter how much cash they have, they may simply add any monetary expansion to their board. Such a situation, in which monetary policy has become ineffective, has come to be known as a "liquidity trap"; Keynes believed that the British and American economies had entered such a trap by the mid-1930s, and some economists believed that the United States was on the edge of such a tap in 1992.
The Keynesian answer to a liquidity trap is for the government to do what the private sector will not: spend. When monetary expansion is ineffective, fiscal expansion—such as public works programs financed by borrowing—must take its place. Such a fiscal expansion can break the vicious circle of low spending and low incomes, "priming the pump: and getting the economy moving again. But remember that this is not by any means an all-purpose policy recommendation; it is essentially a strategy of desperation, a dangerous drug to be prescribed only when the usual over-the-counter remedy of monetary policy has failed.”

Source: Peddling Prosperity (1994), Ch. 1 : The Attack on Keynes

Benito Mussolini photo

“Some still ask of us: what do you want? We answer with three words that summon up our entire program. Here they are…Italy, Republic, Socialization... Socialization is no other than the implantation of Italian Socialism…”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

Speech given by Mussolini to a group of Milanese Fascist veterans (October 14, 1944), quoted in Revolutionary Fascism, Erik Norling, Lisbon, Finis Mundi Press (2011) pp.119-120.
1940s

Edsger W. Dijkstra photo

“The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility, and among other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague.”

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist

Dijkstra (1972) The Humble Programmer http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EWD340.html (EWD340).
1970s

Maithripala Sirisena photo

“The new government of Sri Lanka is now carrying out the program [to improve Sri Lanka's economy] to build the coexistence and reconciliation in the country by fulfilling the responsibilities of a post-war period, after ending the 26 years long terrorism in Sri Lanka”

Maithripala Sirisena (1951) Sri Lankan politician, 7th President of Sri Lanka

Sirisena on improving Sri Lankan reconciliation after the post-war period, quoted on defence.lk, "Austria - Sri Lanka agree to enhance economic cooperation" http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=Austria_Sri_Lanka_agree_to_enhance_economic_cooperation_20160220_02, March 3, 2016.

John McCarthy photo

“One can even conjecture that Lisp owes its survival specifically to the fact that its programs are lists, which everyone, including me, has regarded as a disadvantage.”

John McCarthy (1927–2011) American computer scientist and cognitive scientist

John McCarthy, " History of Lisp http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/lisp/lisp.html," 12 February 1979; republished at www-formal.stanford.edu.
1970s