List of Edsger Dijkstra Quotes

A Convincing Demonstration Of Correctness Being Impossible As Long As The Mechanism Is Regarded As A Black Box, Our Only Hope Lies In Not Regarding The Mechanism As A Black Box.

A Programming Language Is A Tool That Has Profound Influence On Our Thinking Habits.

I Mentioned The Non-competitive Spirit Explicitly, Because These Days, Excellence Is A Fashionable Concept. But Excellence Is A Competitive Notion, And That Is Not What We Are Heading For: We Are Heading For Perfection.

Several People Have Told Me That My Inability To Suffer Fools Gladly Is One Of My Main Weaknesses.

... As A Slow-witted Human Being I Have A Very Small Head And I Had Better Learn To Live With It And To Respect My Limitations And Give Them Full Credit, Rather Than To Try To Ignore Them, For The Latter Vain Effort Will Be Punished By Failure.

Some Consider The Puzzles That Are Created By Their Omissions As Spicy Challenges, Without Which Their Texts Would Be Boring; Others Shun Clarity Lest Their Work Is Considered Trivial.

When I Came Back From Munich, It Was September, And I Was Professor Of Mathematics At The Eindhoven University Of Technology. Later I Learned That I Had Been The Department's Third Choice, After Two Numerical Analysts Had Turned The Invitation Down; The Decision To Invite Me Had Not Been An Easy One, On The One Hand Because I Had Not Really Studied Mathematics, And On The Other Hand Because Of My Sandals, My Beard And My "arrogance" (whatever That May Be).

Computer Science Has As Much To Do With Computers As Astronomy Has To Do With Telescopes.

There Should Be No Such Thing As Boring Mathematics.

Many Mathematicians Derive Part Of Their Self-esteem By Feeling Themselves The Proud Heirs Of A Long Tradition Of Rational Thinking; I Am Afraid They Idealize Their Cultural Ancestors.

When We Take The Position That It Is Not Only The Programmer's Responsibility To Produce A Correct Program But Also To Demonstrate Its Correctness In A Convincing Manner, Then The Above Remarks Have A Profound Influence On The Programmer's Activity: The Object He Has To Produce Must Be Usefully Structured.

A Most Important, But Also Most Elusive, Aspect Of Any Tool Is Its Influence On The Habits Of Those Who Train Themselves In Its Use. If The Tool Is A Programming Language This Influence Is, Whether We Like It Or Not, An Influence On Our Thinking Habits.... A Programming Language Is A Tool That Has Profound Influence On Our Thinking Habits.