Grace Hopper quotes

Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral, renowned for her pioneering work in computer programming. Her innovations led to the development of the first compiler and the popularization of high-level programming languages. She inspired generations of technologists and remains a legendary figure in the history of computing. Here are 29 of her quotes:

I've always been more interested in the future than in the past.

Grace Hopper

It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Grace Hopper

Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems.

Grace Hopper

I handed my passport to the immigration officer, and he looked at it and looked at me and said, "What are you?"

Grace Hopper

Unsourced variant: The most dangerous phrase in the language is, "We've always done it this way."

Grace Hopper

From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it.

Grace Hopper

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 counter-clockwise.

Grace Hopper

The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.

Grace Hopper

You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership.

Grace Hopper

To me programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge.

Grace Hopper

If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.

Grace Hopper

At present, we're putting on paper a lot of stuff that never needed to be on paper. We do need to keep the records. But there isn't any reason for printing them. The next generation growing up with the computers will change that.

Grace Hopper

No computer is ever going to ask a new, reasonable question. It takes trained people to do that.

Grace Hopper

At the end of about a week, I called back and said, "I need something to compare this to. Could I please have a microsecond?"

Grace Hopper

I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. ... they carefully told me, computers could only do arithmetic; they could not do programs.

Grace Hopper

[The Computer] was the first machine man built that assisted the power of his brain instead of the strength of his arm.

Grace Hopper

One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.

Grace Hopper

You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.

Grace Hopper

If they put you down somewhere with nothing to do, go to sleep - you don't know when you'll get any more.

Grace Hopper

We must include in any language with which we hope to describe complex data-processing situations the capability for describing data.

Grace Hopper

We must state relationships, not procedures.

Grace Hopper

A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge. We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.

Grace Hopper