Donald Knuth Quotes

A good technical writer, trying not to be obvious about it, but says everything twice: formally and informally. Or maybe three times.

I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof.

An algorithm must be seen to be believed.

I am assuming that God exists and I am glad that there is no way to prove this. [Because] I would run through the proof once, and then I'd forget it, and I would never speculate about spiritual things and mysteries otherwise. And, I think, my life would be very incomplete.

A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.

The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random.

By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method; it is much closer to reality.

In this sense, we should continually be striving to transform every art into a science: in the process, we advance the art.

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.

Most people only know pi in decimal.

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.

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.

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.

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

I can’t go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at the fonts on the menu.