The 12 Most Retweeted Programming Quotes

Chris Brandrick
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Published in
4 min readAug 12, 2016

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We all have a favourite quote. Be it a particularly inspiring line, collection of words, or an especially motivational phrase. A good quote expresses wisdom, has the power to resonate, and bring meaning to the everyday.

Or, they can just make you smile. 🙂

Here’s a collection of great quotes from people in the computer science, programming and developer space.

All of these quotes are just some of the most popular shared daily over on the Code Wisdom Twitter account.

🎣 A twist on the old fish/fishing rod analogy

This first quote comes via David Leinweber, author of Nerds on Wall Street:

“Give someone a program, you frustrate them for a day; teach them how to program, you frustrate them for a lifetime.”

🤔 Being a problem solver

🍝 Pasta programming

The term ‘Lasagna Code’ was coined by database expert Joe Celko in the early 1980’s as a way to allude to a layered program structure.

It’s used to refer to blocks of structured code nested so deep (like layers of lasagna) that they become difficult to understand/follow.

This isn’t the only pasta analogy in programming — ‘Spaghetti Code’ is also a popular adage, for when code gets a bit messy.

A quote from Roberto Waltman captures the crux of the expression:

“The object-oriented version of spaghetti code is, of course, ‘lasagna code’. Too many layers.”

⏳Finding efficiency

😊 An empathetic craft

This next quote comes from software engineer Kent Beck. Now working at Facebook, Kent is known for the Extreme Programming methodology.

“The craft of programming begins with empathy, not formatting or languages or tools or algorithms or data structures.”

👀 The Concentration Game

🚦 Check, and check again

“A good programmer is someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.” — Doug Linder

👍 For Fun

Image via #WOCinTech Chat

🔑 Simplicity isn’t easy

A significant figure in software engineering, theoretical pioneer Edsger Dijkstra made huge contributions to computer science, coining the term ‘structured programming’.

The selected quote below highlights Dijkstra’s approach to the discipline of software engineering:

Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.

❌ Margin of error

Do you have any great quotes you’d like to share with us?

Either drop a comment below, or tweet our CodeWisdom account.

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Chris Brandrick
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Editorial Director at Cooperpress | Curator of Switch Weekly