About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
More Quotes from Edsger Dijkstra:
There should be no such thing as boring mathematics.Edsger Dijkstra
If 10 years from now, when you are doing something quick and dirty, you suddenly visualize that I am looking over your shoulders and say to yourself: 'Dijkstra would not have liked this', well that would be enough immortality for me.
Edsger Dijkstra
Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning.
Edsger Dijkstra
The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
Edsger Dijkstra
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.
Edsger Dijkstra
If in physics there's something you don't understand, you can always hide behind the uncharted depths of nature. You can always blame God. You didn't make it so complex yourself. But if your program doesn't work, there is no one to hide behind. You cannot hide behind an obstinate nature. If it doesn't work, you've messed up.
Edsger Dijkstra
Readers Who Like This Quotation Also Like:
Based on Topics: Language QuotesBased on Keywords: axe, axes, blunt, sharpen
That the Op-Ed page is very important in readers' and the nation's perception of the Times, the perception of its editorial positions, and of its implicit editorial positions as expressed by the publisher's choice of people who are given the freedom to write opinion columns.
Daniel Okrent
The tortures of present death disturb him not, but the recollection of his fall, fills him with a holy sorrow.
John Strachan
The applause is a celebration not only of the actors but also of the audience. It constitutes a shared moment of delight.
John Charles Polanyi