"Programmers are in a race with the Universe to create bigger and better idiot-proof programs, while the Universe is trying to create bigger and better idiots. So far the Universe is winning."

"MS-DOS, an OS originally designed for a microprocessor that modern kitchen appliances would sneer at."

"It is a tremendous responsibility for us to have all the eyes focused on what we do and give people exactly what they need when they ask for it."

"Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to…"

"We're making a major move of the Internet, and runway. Polo.com is a natural extension of both polo.com and our collection business."

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."

"The Star Trek computer doesn't seem that interesting. They ask it random questions, it thinks for a while. I think we can do better than that."

"It is not the computer's fault that Maxwell's equations are not adequate to design the electric motor."

"If you don't want to be replaced by a computer, don't act like one."

"That’s what’s cool about working with computers. They don’t argue, they remember everything, and they don’t drink all your beer."

"Early on, when software was developed by computer scientists, just people working with computers, people passed around software because that was how you got computers to do things."

"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them."

"Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves."

"Good programmers use their brains, but good guidelines save us having to think out every case."

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."

"There's a great desire to be computer-savvy among those 50 and older. They're really hungry for it."

"We really care about our brand. We really want it to stand for high quality. We want people to be excited about it, for it to be fun."

"I wish life had an Undo function."

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."

"We started putting together a "hotlist" of favorite sites from David and myself, and we called it "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" Before we knew it, people from all over the world were using this database that we…"

"It’s ridiculous to live 100 years and only be able to remember 30 million bytes. You know, less than a compact disc. The human condition is really becoming more obsolete every minute."

"We will never become a truly paper-less society until the Palm Pilot folks come out with WipeMe 1.0."

"I'm struck by the insidious, computer-driven tendency to take things out of the domain of muscular activity and put them into the domain of mental activity."

"If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into committees. That'll do them in."

"It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one."

"A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing."

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."

"If your computer speaks English, it was probably made in Japan."

"If we believe in data structures, we must believe in independent (hence simultaneous) processing. For why else would we collect items within a structure? Why do we tolerate languages that give us the one without the other?"

"I like my job because it involves learning. I like being around smart people who are trying to figure out new things. I like the fact that if people really try they can figure out how to invent things that…"

"Whereas knights of old wore armor of plate, the modern knights of the air wear the invisible but magic armor of confidence in technology."

"In software systems, it is often the early bird that makes the worm."

"If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger."

"One does not learn computing by using a hand calculator, but one can forget arithmetic."

"Applying computer technology is simply finding the right wrench to pound in the correct screw."

"One would think that if you're anonymous, you'd do anything you want, but groups have their own sense of community and what we can do."

"Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer, deserves to be."

"The term reboot comes from the middle age (before computers). Horses who stopped in mid-stride required a boot to the rear to start again. Thus the term to rear-boot, later abbreviated into reboot."

"My understanding is their objective is to increase their capacity for the Internet, search engines. All I know is there's a lot of computers."

"Microsoft has had its success by doing low-cost products and constantly improving those products and we've really redefined the IT industry to be something that's about a tool for individuals."

"A world technology means either a world government or world suicide."

"I still have my laptop but I haven't used it. I'm a paper man, not electronic."

"The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing. Not so with technology."

"The computer is the most extraordinary of man's technological clothing; it's an extension of our central nervous system. Beside it, the wheel is a mere hula-hoop."

"Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming; feedback is the treatment."

"If brute force doesn't solve your problems, then you aren't using enough."

"Every day were saying, 'How can we keep this customer happy?' How can we get ahead in innovation by doing this, because if we don't, somebody else will."

"I believe that this notion of self-publishing, which is what Blogger and blogging are really about, is the next big wave of human communication. The last big wave was Web activity. Before that one it was e-mail. Instant messaging was…"