For their love of technology, ardent computer lovers must have a handy collection of wise and humorous computer quotations from which to choose the quote of the day. Different people have various ideas regarding computers and technology. To make sure that everyone is content and to provide you a suitable quote of the day, this collection of computer quotations comprises a wide range of ideas.x
Charles Babbage, who became renowned as the “Father of the Computer,” created the first computer. There have been many well-known computer scientists throughout history, including John von Neumann, Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Page, Alan Turing, and more. The world has been given unprecedented opportunities by computer science, but like anything else, it also has its drawbacks.
Enjoy these amazing, humorous statements about computers, and for more motivation, check out the quotations by
Alan Turing and
Ada Lovelace.
- “Right now, computers, which are supposed to be our servants, are oppressing us.”- Jef Raskin.
- I’m an alumni of Central Saint Martins college and the idea that computers are capable of creating art is unsettling, mostly because of what it implies about us human beings. Dean Jones, CEO of tennerr
- “Computer Science is a science of abstraction -creating the right model for a problem and devising the appropriate mechanizable techniques to solve it. –Alfred Aho
- “Programming can be fun, so can cryptography; however they should not be combined.”— Kreitzberg and Shneiderman
“Before software should be reusable, it should be usable.”— Ralph Johnson
- “Computers are like Old Testament gods – lots of rules and no mercy.”- Joseph Campbell.
- “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”- Ken Olsen.
- “Computer system analysis is like child-rearing; you can do grievous damage, but you cannot ensure success.”- Tom DeMarco.
- “Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking.”- Milton Glaser.
- “Computing is not about computers anymore. It is about living. —Nicholas Negroponte
The purpose of the computer’s creation was to address previously unsolved issues. – tennerr CEO
- “It’s been my policy to view the Internet not as an ‘information highway’, but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies.”- Mike Royko.
- “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” – Martin Fowler, software engineer, object-oriented programming pioneer
- “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail…”- Stephen Hawking.
- “Mostly, when you see programmers, they aren’t doing anything. One of the attractive things about programmers is that you cannot tell whether or not they are working simply by looking at them. Very often they’re sitting there seemingly drinking coffee and gossiping, or just staring into space. What the programmer is trying to do is get a handle on all the individual and unrelated ideas that are scampering around in his head.”— Charles M. Strauss
- “The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before.”- Bill Gates.
- “Coding, it’s an endless process of trial and error, of trying to get the right command in the right place, with sometimes just a semicolon making the difference between success and failure. Code breaks and then it falls apart, and it often takes many, many tries until that magical moment when what you’re trying to build comes to life.” – Reshma Saujani, Entrepreneur, and founder of Girls Who Code
- “A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing.”— Emo Philips
- “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”— Edsger W. Dijkstra
- “It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter.”— Nathaniel S. Borenstein
- “I regard the brain as a computer that will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. –Stephen Hawking
- It’s hardware that makes computers fast and its software that makes a fast computer slow. – Dean Jones CEO tennerr
- “Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. —Edsger Dijkstra
- “In a room full of top software designers, if two agree on the same thing, that’s a majority.”— Bill Curtis
It’s not computer literacy that we should be working on, but sort of human literacy. Computers have to become human-literate. –Nicholas P. Negroponte – Richard Dawkins.
- “It’s OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn’t need to figure out code. You should be able to read it.”— Steve McConnell
- “It’s hardware that makes a machine fast. It’s software that makes a fast machine slow.”— Craig Bruce
- “Sometimes it pays to stay in bed on Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday’s code.” – Dan Salomon, computer scientist
- When it comes to modern technology, there is simply very little room for compromise. – Dean Jones DomainRooster CEO
- “I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive…”- Stephen Hawking.
- “Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.” –Donald Knuth, the “father of analysis of algorithms”
- “Where is the ‘any’ key?”— Homer Simpson, in response to the message, “Press any key”
- “If you don’t know anything about computers, just remember that they are machines…but often surprise you in the result.”
- “If you automate a mess, you get an automated mess.”— Rod Michael
- “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”— Stephen Hawking
-Nicholas P. Negroponte.
- “Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.”— Abelson and Sussman
- “Whoever said computers were smarter than humans.” – Dean Jones, CEO tennerr
Computers have a lot of memory, but they don’t have any creativity. – DomainRooster CEO
- “Less than 10% of the code has to do with the ostensible purpose of the system; the rest deals with input-output, data validation, data structure maintenance, and other housekeeping.”— Mary Shaw
- “A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. – Doug Linder, computer scientist
- “From a programmer’s point of view, the user is a peripheral that types when you issue a read request.— P. Williams
- “A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much different from what you had in mind.”– Joseph Weizenbaum.
Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don’t need to be done. –Andy Rooney
- “If being a nerd means you’re somebody who can enjoy exploring a computer for hours and hours late into the night, then the description fits me, and I don’t think there’s anything pejorative about it. But here’s the real test: I’ve never used a pocket protector, so I can’t really be a nerd, can I? –Bill Gates
- “If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it.”— Linus Torvalds
- “That’s the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers. –Larry Niven
- “The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause accidents.”— Nathaniel Borenstein
“The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before.”— Bill Gates
- “It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.”— Alan Perlis
- “If we wish to count lines of code, we should not regard them as ‘lines produced’ but as ‘lines spent.’”— Edsger Dijkstra
- “The spread of computers and the Internet will put jobs in two categories. People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do. –Marc Andreessen
- “Computers were a kind of imagery in themselves, or might as well be to people who didn’t understand them…”
- “Standards are always out of date. That’s what makes them standards.”— Alan Bennett
- “Physics is the universe’s operating system.”— Steven R Garman
- “If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.”— Ludwig Wittgenstein
- “The spread of computers and the Internet will put jobs in two categories. People who tell computers what to do, and people who are told by computers what to do.” –Marc Andreessen, Entrepreneur, inventor of Netscape
- “Simplicity, carried to the extreme, becomes elegance.”— Jon Franklin, computer scientist
- “We need to understand that if we all work on inclusion together, it’s going to be faster, broader, better, and more thorough than anything we can do on our own.” – Ellen Pao, former Reddit CEO
- Computers now engage with people rather of merely interacting with them, and this relationship will only get deeper, more nuanced, and more important for our survival as a species as a whole. DomainRooster CEO
- Computers are quiet and clean and totally distracting because the Internet is there, lying in wait for a moment of weakness to pounce on your “creativity and progress. –Arlaina Tibensky
- Supercomputers will achieve one human brain capacity by 2010, and personal computers will do so by about 2020. –Ray Kurzweil
- “The computing scientist’s main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.”- Edsger W Dijkstra.
- “Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ I try to fight that. That’s why I have a clock on my wall that runs counterclockwise.” – Grace Hopper, computer scientist and military admiral, one of the first to program the Harvard Mark I computer
- “There is only one problem with common sense; it’s not very common.”— Milt Bryce
- “The quality, relevance, and impact of the products and jobs output by the technology sector can only be improved by having the people who are building them be demographically representative of the people who are using them.” – Tracy Chou, current CEO of Block Party, ex Pinterest, Quora“A program is never less than 90% complete, and never more than 95% complete.”— Terry Baker, coder
- The true danger lies not in the possibility that computers will begin to think like people, but rather in the possibility that people will begin to think like computers. – DomainRooster CEO
- “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”— Confucius
- “Code generation, like drinking alcohol, is good in moderation.”— Alex Lowe
- “The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do…”- Ted Nelson.
- “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”— Albert Einstein
- The incredible power that machines possess is only brought to light when something goes wrong with them. – Dean Jones DomainRooster CEO
- “Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn.”- Steve Jobs.
- “Computers are quiet and clean and totally distracting because the Internet is there, lying in wait for a moment of weakness to pounce on your creativity and progress.”- Arlaina Tibensky.
- “The computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.”– Mitch Ratcliffe.
- “I see little commercial potential for the Internet for at least ten years.”- Bill Gates.
- “Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind. –Donald Knuth
- “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination. –Albert Einstein
- “Before software should be reusable, it should be usable.”— Ralph Johnson, Computer Scientist, UIUC
- “Design is where science and art break even.” – Robin Matthews, activist and professor“Everybody should learn to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.” – Steve Jobs, former CEO and creator of Apple
- “Computer science really involves the same mindset, particularly artificial intelligence.”- Frederick Lenz.
- “The similarities between humans and computers are more numerous than the differences.”- P.A. Scott.
- “If you have a procedure with ten parameters, you probably missed some.”— Alan Perlis
“How rare it is that maintaining someone else’s code is akin to entering a beautifully designed building, which you admire as you walk around and plan how to add a wing or do some redecorating. More often, maintaining someone else’s code is like being thrown headlong into a big pile of slimy, smelly garbage.”— Bill Venners
- “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”- Pablo Picasso.
- “Most of the good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program.” — Linus Torvalds, software engineer, inventor of the Linux operating system
- “As a rule, software systems do not work well until they have been used, and have failed repeatedly, in real applications.”- Dave Parnas.
- “Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.”— Donald Knuth
If carpenters made buildings the way programmers make programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy all of civilization. – Unknown Author
- “The internet is not for…[the weak].”When they are functioning properly, computers are a blessing from heaven; when they are not, they are more like a bat from hell. Dean Jones DomainRooster CEO
- “Access to computers and the Internet has become a basic need for education in our society.”- Kent Conrad.
- “Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs: Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.”— Donald E. Knuth
If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in. – Edsger Dijkstra, computer science pioneer
- “People think computers will keep them from making mistakes. They’re wrong. With computers you make mistakes faster.”- Adam Osborne, computer scientist, inventor of the first portable computer
- “Commenting your code is like cleaning your bathroom — you never want to do it, but it really does create a more pleasant experience for you and your guests.”— Ryan Campbell
There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand computers and those who don’t. – Dean Jones CEO of tennerr
- The differences between humans and computers are more numerous than the similarities. Dean Jones CEO of tennerr
- “Computers are hierarchical. We have a desktop and hierarchical files which have to mean everything.”- Ted Nelson.
- “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.”- Albert Einstein.
- Using a computer is cool, but allowing them to take over your brain is another thing entirely. – Dean Jones, DomainRooster CEO
- “The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before.” — Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and former CEO, philanthropist
- “Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding. —Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
- “Computers we’re made in the image of computers.“ – Dean Jones, CEO tennerr
- “Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that…it is completely honest.”- Issac Asimov.
- “Pessimists, we’re told, look at a glass containing 50% air and 50% water and see it as half empty. Optimists, in contrast, see it as half full. Engineers, of course, understand the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.”— Bob Lewis
- The computer brings out the perfectionist and control freak in all of us. – Dean Jones, DomainRooster CEO
- “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home. —Ken Olsen
- “Supercomputers will achieve one human brain capacity by 2010, and personal computers will do so by about 2020.”- Ray Kurzweil.
- “The future lies in designing and selling computers that people don’t realize are computers at all.”- Adam Osborne.
- “People think computers will keep them from making mistakes. They’re wrong. With computers you make mistakes faster.”- Adam Osborne.
- “Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.”— Mitchell Kapor“
- “A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.”- Alan Perlis.- Orson Scott Card.
- “All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can’t get them together again, there must be a reason. By all means, do not use a hammer.”— IBM Manual, 1925
- “The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.”- Edsger W Dijkstra.
- “We have to stop optimizing for programmers and start optimizing for users.”— Jeff Atwood
- “Low-level programming is good for the programmer’s soul.”— John Carmack
- “What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with…”- Steve Jobs.
- “The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.”- Sydney J Harris.
- “The more you know, the more you realize you know nothing.”— Socrates
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”— Benjamin Franklin
- “Computers are finite machines; when given the same input, they always produce the same output.”- Greg Perry.
- “The Internet? We are not interested in it. –Bill Gates
- “Computing is not about computers anymore. It is about living.”-Nicholas Negroponte.
- “I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them.”— Isaac Asimov
- “Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.”- John F. Kennedy.
- “Computers are great because when you’re working with them you get immediate results that let you know if your program works. It’s the feedback you don’t get from many other things. –Bill Gates
- “If you think you are worth what you know, you are very wrong. Your knowledge today does not have much value beyond a couple of years. Your value is what you can learn and how easily you can adapt to the changes this profession brings so often.”— Jose M. Aguilar
- “It’s not computer literacy that we should be working on, but sort of human literacy. Computers have to become human-literate.”
- “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”— Bill Gates
- “Computers are magnificent tools…but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit…”- Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
Similar to King Leonidas, the ruler of the spartans, computers follow a strict set of guidelines and show no compassion or mercy. Dean Jones, DomainRooster CEO
- “Software is like entropy: It is difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the Second Law of Thermodynamics; i.e., it always increases.— Norman Augustine
- “Looking at code you wrote more than two weeks ago is like looking at code you are seeing for the first time.”— Dan Hurvitz
- “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”- Edsger W. Dijkstra.
- “It’s hardware that makes a machine fast. It’s software that makes a fast machine slow.”- Craig Bruce.
- “Software is a gas; it expands to fill its container.”— Nathan Myhrvold
- “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.”- Albert Einstein, physicist
