Requirements in mathematical language are no use unless they are easier to read than the code.

Whenever anyone says, 'theoretically', they really mean, 'not really'.

Copy and paste is a design error.

When someone builds a bridge, he uses engineers who have been certified as knowing what they are doing. Yet when someone builds you a software program, he has no similar certification, even though your safety may be just as dependent upon that software working as it is upon the bridge supporting your weight.

Find the simplest model that is not a lie is the key to better software design.

I have found that the reason a lot of people are interested in artificial intelligence is the same reason a lot of people are interested in artificial limbs: they are missing one.

One bad programmer can easily create two new jobs a year.

As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.

Many spend their time berating practitioners for not applying their method. We all need to disseminate our ideas, but most of our time should be spent applying and improving our methods, not selling them. The best way to sell a mouse trap is to display some trapped mice.

Artificial intelligence has the same relation to intelligence as artificial flowers have to flowers.