Quotes from Donald Knuth

I think people who write programs do have at least a glimmer of extra insight into the nature of God... because creating a program often means that you have to create a small universe

God is a challenge because there is no proof of his existence and therefore the search must continue.

[The Euclidean algorithm is] the granddaddy of all algorithms, because it is the oldest nontrivial algorithm that has survived to the present day.

Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.

Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.

The most important thing in the kitchen is the waste paper basket and it needs to be centrally located.

There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency.

A list is only as strong as its weakest link.

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 each other, like a wall of mini stones.

I have a hunch that the unknown sequences of DNA will decode into copyright notices and patent protections.

I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study.

Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don't fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it.

It would be nice if we could design a virtual reality in Hyperbolic Space, and meet each other there.

We should continually be striving to transform every art into a science: in the process, we advance the art.

Trees sprout up just about everywhere in computer science.

I remember that mathematicians were telling me in the 1960s that they would recognize computer science as a mature discipline when it had 1,000 deep algorithms. I think we've probably reached 500.

Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.

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.

Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.

People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.

I currently use Ubuntu Linux, on a standalone laptop - it has no Internet connection. I occasionally carry flash memory drives between this machine and the Macs that I use for network surfing and graphics but I trust my family jewels only to Linux.

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.

The whole thing that makes a mathematician's life worthwhile is that he gets the grudging admiration of three or four colleagues.

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.