Edsger Dijkstra

“Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.”

“It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.”

“Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.”

“The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.”

“Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”

“Why has elegance found so little following? That is the reality of it. Elegance has the disadvantage, if that's what it is, that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it.”

“Don't compete with me: firstly, I have more experience, and secondly, I have chosen the weapons.”