33 quotes
In this sense, we should continually be striving to transform every art into a science: in the process, we advance the art.
Computer Programming as an Art (1974)
The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random.
The Art of Computer Programming (1968)
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof.
Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.
Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been sorted with the help of a computer.
The Art of Computer Programming (1968)
By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method; it is much closer to reality.
The Art of Computer Programming (1968)
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
The Art of Computer Programming (1968)
A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.
The whole thing that makes a mathematician’s life worthwhile is that he gets the grudging admiration of three or four colleagues.
People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.
The Art of Computer Programming (1968)
Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random
The Art of Computer Programming (1968)
Trees sprout up just about everywhere in computer science...
The Art of Computer Programming (1968)
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
Foreword to the book A=B (1996)
Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don't fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it.
Computer Programming as an Art (1974)
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.
The psychological profiling [of a programmer] is mostly the ability to shift levels of abstraction, from low level to high level. To see something in the small and to see something in the large.
I can’t be as confident about computer science as I can about biology. Biology easily has 500 years of exciting problems to work on. It’s at that level.
Computer Literacy Bookshops Interview Computer Literacy Bookshops Interview (1993)
The important thing, once you have enough to eat and a nice house, is what you can do for others, what you can contribute to the enterprise as a whole.
A good technical writer, trying not to be obvious about it, but says everything twice: formally and informally. Or maybe three times.