Donald Knuth quotes

Donald Knuth is an American computer scientist and professor, widely recognized for his work in algorithms and typesetting. His multi-volume series "The Art of Computer Programming" is considered a foundational text in computer science. He has also created the TeX typesetting system, significantly influencing the world of technical publishing. Here are 50 of his quotes:

Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do. (Donald Knuth)
An algorithm must be seen to be believed. View quote
Donald Knuth
I can' t go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at the fonts on the menu. View quote
Donald Knuth
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. View quote
Donald 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. View quote
Donald Knuth
People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird. View quote
Donald Knuth
A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God. View quote
Donald Knuth
We should continually be striving to transform every art into a science: in the process, we advance the art. View quote
Donald Knuth
By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method; it is much closer to reality. View quote
Donald Knuth
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. View quote
Donald Knuth
Premature optimization is the root of all evil. (Donald Knuth)
I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof. View quote
Donald Knuth
Trees sprout up just about everywhere in computer science... View quote
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. View quote
Donald Knuth
Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random. View quote
Donald Knuth
The whole thing that makes a mathematician's life worthwhile is that he gets the grudging admiration of three or four colleagues. View quote
Donald Knuth
The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random. View quote
Donald Knuth
In fact, my main conclusion after spending ten years of my life working on the TEX project is that software is hard. It's harder than anything else I've ever had to do. View quote
Donald Knuth
How can you own [...] numbers? Numbers belong to the world. View quote
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. View quote
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)
Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don't fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it. View quote
Donald Knuth
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. View quote
Donald Knuth
I can't be as confident about computer science as I can about biology. Biology easily has 500 years of exciting problems to work on. It's at that level. View quote
Donald Knuth
Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been sorted with the help of a computer. View quote
Donald Knuth

Donald Knuth

Donald Knuth - Image
Photo: Wikimedia commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
Occupation: American Scientist
Born: January 10, 1938
Quotes count: 50
Wikipedia: Donald Knuth

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