In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

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Source, in full

The earliest known appearance in print of this quote is Benjamin Brewster in the October 1881 - June 1882 issue of "The Yale Literary Magazine." Brewster asks, "What does his lucid explanation amount to but this, that in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is?" See page 202. google.com and quoteinvestigator.com

Notes from Wikiquote

It has also been attributed by Doug Rosenberg and Matt Stephens (2007) Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UMLTheory and Practice p. xxvii as well as Walter J. Savitch, Pascal: An Introduction to the Art and Science of Programming (1984), where it is attributed as a "remark overheard at a computer science conference". It circulated as an anonymous saying for more than ten years before attributions to van de Snepscheut and Yogi Berra began to appear (and later still to various others).

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.