Donald Knuth - Computer Quotes

13 Sourced Quotes

View all Donald Knuth Quotes
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.

Donald Knuth
To summarize: We have seen that 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. Therefore we can be glad that people who lecture at computer conferences speak of the state of the Art.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Donald Knuth
Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been sorted with the help of a computer.

Donald Knuth
Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.

Donald Knuth
The difference between art and science is that science is what people understand well enough to explain to a computer. All else is art.

Donald Knuth
The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.

Donald Knuth
These machines have no common sense; they have not yet learned to "think," and they do exactly as they are told, no more and no less. This fact is the hardest concept to grasp when one first tries to use a computer

Donald Knuth
I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of one's contributions to computer science.

Donald Knuth