My favourite Dijkstra's epigrams

Do not try to change the world. Give the world the opportunity to change itself.

The question of whether computers can think is like the question of whether submarines can swim.

Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

A formula is worth a thousand pictures.

Progress is possible only if we train ourselves to think about programs without thinking of them as pieces of executable code.

Program testing can at best show the presence of errors but never their absence.

I pray daily that more of my fellow programmers may find the means of freeing themselves from the curse of compatibility.

If you carefully read its literature and analyze what its devotees actually do, you will discover that software engineering has accepted as its charter, “How to program if you cannot.”

Waiting is a very funny activity: you can’t wait twice as fast.

Mathematicians are like managers; they want improvement without change.

source : Memorial Resolution - Edsger Wyber Dijkstra