Larry Wall Computer Quotations

I think computer science, by and large, is still stuck in the Modern age.

A journey of a thousand miles continues with the second step.

The young think they are immortal, and are determined to prove otherwise.

Lisp has all the visual appeal of oatmeal with fingernail clippings mixed in.

It's easier to make up sayings people like to hear than sayings they like to heed.

Human languages tend to be much more ambiguous than computer languages because humans are much smarter about interpreting the context.

I just hope I'm never promoted to the level of my incontinence.

I think I'll side with the pissheads on this one.

Yes, but I did manage to increase the amount of virginity in the world by that method.

Save it for my unauthorized autobiography.

Let's say the docs present a simplified view of reality...

A good messenger expects to get shot.

... an initial underscore already conveys strong feelings of magicalness to a C programmer.

It's there as a sop to former Ada programmers.

It won't be covered in the book. The source code has to be useful for something, after all...

What about WRITING it first and rationalizing it afterwards?

Don't wear rollerskates to a tug-of-war.

Just because you're into control doesn't mean you're in control.

Guilty as charged. Perl is happily ugly, and happily derivative.

You need to go and find someone to teach you the rudiments of irrational discourse.

Sometimes I wish I could put an expiration date on my quotes.

Although the Perl Slogan is There's More Than One Way to Do It, I hesitate to make 10 ways to do something.

I think I'm likely to be certified before Perl is...

Computer languages differ not so much in what they make possible, but in what they make easy.

You can prove anything by mentioning another computer language.

I'm sorry, but you just made me lose my sense of humor, which is deeply regrettable.

Besides, REAL computers have a rename() system call.

The computer should be doing the hard work. That's what it's paid to do, after all.

The purpose of most computer languages is to lengthen your resume by a word and a comma.

The whole history of computers is rampant with cheerleading at best and bigotry at worst.

Just don't create a file called.