Donald Ervin Knuth > Quotes

“Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer; art is everything else.”
― Donald E. Knuth, Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About (Volume 136)

“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 E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Computer Science

“An algorithm must be seen to be believed.”
― Donald Knuth, Leaders in Computing: Changing the digital world

“Premature optimization is the root of all evil.”
― Donald Ervin Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms

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

“The language in which we express our ideas has a strong influence on our thought processes.”
― Donald Ervin Knuth, Literate Programming (Lecture Notes)

“Nearly every example of faulty reasoning that has been published is accompanied by the phrase "of course" or its equivalent.”
― Donald Ervin Knuth

“Programming is the art of telling another human being what one wants the computer to do.”
― Donald Ervin 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, Selected Papers on Computer Science

“We should continually be striving to transform every art into a science: in the process, we advance the art.”
― Donald Ervin Knuth

“In fact, my experiences as I was writing the 3:16 book weren't that different from writing computer books, although I wasn't using integral signs as much.”
― Donald E. Knuth, Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About (Volume 136)

“The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.”
― Donald Ervin Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms

“B: True. I've got this made urge to get up before a class and present our results: Theorem, proof, lemma, remark. I'd make it so slick nobody would be able to guess how we did it, and everyone would be ”
― Donald Ervin Knuth, Surreal Numbers

“B: True. I've got this mad urge to get up before a class and present our results: Theorem, proof, lemma, remark. I'd make it so slick nobody would be able to guess how we did it, and everyone would be so impressed.”
― Donald Ervin Knuth, Surreal Numbers