Quotes

As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn’t as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.

– Maurice Wilkes, 1949

The process of stepping through a piece of code in a debugger and watching it work is enormously valuable…imaginative use of a debugger produces benefits far beyond its initial charter.

– Steve McConnell, Code Complete, page 616 (1993)

On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?” I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

– Charles Babbage (1791-1871), inventor of the Difference Engine, an early mechanical computing device

Things should be made as simple as possible — but no simpler.

– Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.

– Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

– Arthur C. Clark (1917-2008)

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

– Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)