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The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.

— Brian Kernighan Unix for Beginners (1979)

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More quotes by Brian Kernighan

Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.

Software Tools (1976)

Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?

Mechanical rules are never a substitute for clarity of thought.

Software Tools (1976)

C is a razor-sharp tool, with which one can create an elegant and efficient program or a bloody mess.

The Practice of Programming (1999)

But you wonder whether it [C++] has passed beyond some threshold of complexity that's beyond mortals.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Brian Kernighan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.