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. . . Meanwhile, those of us who can compute can hardly be
expected to keep writing papers saying 'I can do the following
useless calculation in two seconds', and indeed what editor would
publish them?
-- Oliver Atkin
Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands
a chance to succeed.
-- Vaclav Havel
If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
-- Anatole France
Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have
two, opulence is when you have three . . . and paradise is when you have
none.
-- Doug Larson
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the
time he will pick himself up and continue.
-- Winston Churchill
Those who can, do. Those who can't, simulate.
-- anonymous
Brilliance is typically the act of an individual, but
incredible stupidity can usually be traced to an organization.
-- Jon Bentley
When you argue with a fool, chances are he is doing just the same.
-- anonymous
The problem with engineers is that they tend to cheat in order to get
results.
The problem with mathematicians is that they tend to work on toy
problems in order to get results.
The problem with program verifiers is that they tend to cheat at toy
problems in order to get results.
-- anonymous
At first I hoped that such a technically unsound project would collapse
but I soon realized it was doomed to success. Almost anything in
software can be implemented, sold, and even used given enough
determination. There is nothing a mere scientist can say that will
stand against the flood of a hundred million dollars. But there is
one quality that cannot be purchased in this way---and that is
reliability. The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost
simplicity. It is a price which the very rich find most hard to pay.
-- C.A.R. Hoare in The Emperor's Old Clothes,
Turing Award Lecture (27 October 1980)
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to
make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the
other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious
deficiencies.
-- C. A. R. Hoare
In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a
degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional
assent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow,
but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics
classrooms.
-- Stephen Jay Gould
A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.
-- Paul Erdös
Pray that there's intelligent life somehere out in space,
because there's bugger all down here on earth.
-- Monty Python
Mathematics in general is fundamentally the science of
self-evident things.
-- F. Klein
I want electricity to become so cheap that only the rich can
afford candles.
-- T. Edison
Engineers think that theory approximates reality.
Physicists think that reality approximates theory.
Mathematicians never make the connection.
-- anonymous
Einstein was a genius: Head in the clouds, feet on the ground.
But those of us who are not as tall, have to make a choice.
-- Richard Feynman
I am not interested in what today's mathematicians find
interesting.
-- Richard Feynman, in a letter to John Wheeler
The man who does not read good books is at no advantage over the
man that can't read them.
-- Mark Twain
Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could
not succeed.
-- Mark Twain
Hello. I'm Rob's answering machine. What are you?
-- anonymous
Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of
science, 1949.
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and
talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data
processing is a fad that won't last out the year.
-- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall,
1957.
But . . . what is it good for?
-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems
Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment
Corp., 1977.
It is easier to port a shell than a shell script.
-- Larry Wall
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language.
-- Larry Wall
Last night as I went up the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
I wish to God he'd go away.
-- anonymous
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential
is invisible to the eye.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come from the depths of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary
desert sands of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
-- Rabindranath Tagore
WARNING: This Product Warps Space and Time in Its Vicinity.
PUBLIC NOTICE AS REQUIRED BY LAW: Any Use of This Product, in Any Manner Whatsoever, Will Increase the Amount of Disorder in the Universe. Although No Liability Is Implied Herein, the Consumer Is Warned That This Process Will Ultimately Lead to the Heat Death of the Universe.
ATTENTION: Despite Any Other Listing of Product Contents Found Hereon, the Consumer is Advised That, in Actuality, This Product Consists Of 99.9999999999% Empty Space.
PLEASE NOTE: Some Quantum Physics Theories Suggest That When the Consumer Is Not Directly Observing This Product, It May Cease to Exist or Will Exist Only in a Vague and Undetermined State.