Donald Knuth Quotes, Sayings, Remarks, Thoughts and Speeches
Donald Knuth Quotes and Sayings
- 1
A list is only as strong as its weakest link.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 2
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 3
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 4
God is a challenge because there is no proof of his existence and therefore the search must continue.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 5
I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of one's contributions to computer science.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 6
If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 7
In fact what I would like to see is thousands of computer scientists let loose to do whatever they want. That's what really advances the field.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 8
Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 9
People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that build on eachother, like a wall of mini stones.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 10
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 11
The hardest thing is to go to sleep at night, when there are so many urgent things needing to be done. A huge gap exists between what we know is possible with today's machines and what we have so far been able to finish.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 12
The manuals we got from IBM would show examples of programs and I knew I could do a heck of a lot better than that. So I thought I might have some talent.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 13
The most important thing in the kitchen is the waste paper basket and it needs to be centrally located.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 14
The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
- 15
There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency.
Donald Knuth | Refcard PDF ↑
