Best Knuth Quotes & Sayings

The best programs are written so that computing machines can perform them quickly and so that human beings can understand them clearly. A programmer is ideally an essayist who works with traditional aesthetic and literary forms as well as mathematical concepts, to communicate the way that an algorithm works and to convince a reader that the results will be correct. — Donald Ervin Knuth

When you write a program, think of it primarily as a work of literature. You're trying to write something that human beings are going to read. Don't think of it primarily as something a computer is going to follow. The more effective you are at making your program readable, the more effective it's going to be: You'll understand it today, you'll understand it next week, and your successors who are going to maintain and modify it will understand it. — Donald Knuth

If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things; it will improve your theories. If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things; it will improve your practice. — Donald Knuth

Trees sprout up just about everywhere in computer science ... — Donald Knuth

If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy. — 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 — Donald Knuth

Overstimulation has been the real drawback. I need to find ways to stop thinking about analysis of algorithms, in order to do various other things that human beings ought to do. — Donald Ervin Knuth

From now on whenever I read a math book, I'm going to try to figure out by myself how everything was done, before looking at the solution. Even if I don't figure it out, I think I'll be able to see the beauty of a proof then. — Donald E. Knuth

The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language. — Donald Knuth

Deep within the web of pavement and steel, a young boy and girl scurried past an old man, his outdated mechanical limbs shaking and twitching like an addict without a fix. He scowled at the hoodlums, scratching the hole in his face where his nose used to be, sold long ago as a cheap replacement part for someone slightly richer than he was. — Jaron Lee Knuth

Premature optimization is the root of all evil. - Donald E. Knuth [ — Joshua Bloch

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

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

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. — Donald Knuth

Meta-design is much more difficult than design; it's easier to draw something than to explain how to draw it. — Donald Knuth

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

It's not really fun listening to an insane person. Do you realize that? You're only entertaining yourself. Not much of a host, if you don't mind my critique. — Jaron Lee Knuth

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

The important thing, once you have enough to eat and a nice house, is what you can do for others, what you can contribute to the enterprise as a whole. — Donald Knuth

The best practice is inspired by theory. — Donald Knuth

The best theory is inspired by practice. — Donald Knuth

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

Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random — Donald Knuth

If you think you're a really good programmer ... read Knuth's Art of Computer Programming ... You should definitely send me a resume if you can read the whole thing. — Bill Gates

We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3% — Donald Knuth

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. — Donald Knuth

An algorithm must be seen to be believed. — Donald Ervin Knuth

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

Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour. — Donald Knuth

The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation. — Donald Knuth

I'm obsessively detail-oriented. — Donald Knuth

Computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better. — Donald Knuth

I can't go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at the fonts on the menu. — Donald Knuth

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

One of the most important lessons, perhaps, is the fact that SOFTWARE IS HARD. From now on I shall have significantly greater respect for every successful software tool that I encounter. During the past decade I was surprised to learn that the writing of programs for TeX and Metafont proved to be much more difficult than all the other things I had done (like proving theorems or writing books). The creation of good software demand a significiantly higher standard of accuracy than those other things do, and it requires a longer attention span than other intellectual tasks. — Donald Knuth

The psychological profiling [of a programmer] is mostly the ability to shift levels of abstraction, from low level to high level. To see something in the small and to see something in the large. — Donald Knuth