All Edsger Dijkstra Quotes
Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.
Edsger Dijkstra
56% of people like this quote
Teaching to unsuspecting youngsters the effective use of formal methods is one of the joys of life because it is so extremely rewarding.
Edsger Dijkstra
56% of people like this quote
Programming is one of the most difficult branches of applied mathematics; the poorer mathematicians had better remain pure mathematicians.
Edsger Dijkstra
56% of people like this quote
I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection.
Edsger Dijkstra
55% of people like this quote
The students that, like the wild animal being prepared for its tricks in the circus called "life", expects only training as sketched above, will be severely disappointed: by his standards he will learn next to nothing.
Edsger Dijkstra
55% of people like this quote
Object-oriented programming is an exceptionally bad idea which could only have originated in California.
Edsger Dijkstra
53% of people like this quote
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
Edsger Dijkstra
52% of people like this quote
Many mathematicians derive part of their self-esteem by feeling themselves the proud heirs of a long tradition of rational thinking; I am afraid they idealize their cultural ancestors.
Edsger Dijkstra
51% of people like this quote
The ability of discerning high quality unavoidably implies the ability of identifying shortcomings.
Edsger Dijkstra
51% of people like this quote
Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure.
Edsger Dijkstra
50% of people like this quote
The traditional mathematician recognizes and appreciates mathematical elegance when he sees it. I propose to go one step further, and to consider elegance an essential ingredient of mathematics: if it is clumsy, it is not mathematics.
Edsger Dijkstra
49% of people like this quote
Don't compete with me: firstly, I have more experience, and secondly, I have chosen the weapons.
Edsger Dijkstra
49% of people like this quote
If 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself: 'Dijkstra would not have liked this', well that would be enough immortality for me.
Edsger Dijkstra
48% of people like this quote
The competent programmer is fully aware of the limited size of his own skull. He therefore approaches his task with full humility, and avoids clever tricks like the plague.
Edsger Dijkstra
47% of people like this quote
Related authors