The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense.

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.

Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer.

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.

If you want more effective programmers, you will discover that they should not waste their time debugging, they should not introduce the bugs to start with.

Program testing can be a very effective way to show the presence of bugs, but it is hopelessly inadequate for showing their absence.

How do we convince people that in programming simplicity and clarity —in short: what mathematicians call "elegance"— are not a dispensable luxury, but a crucial matter that decides between success and failure?