Grace Hopper Quotes

#1. The only phrase I've ever disliked is, 'Why, we've always done it that way.' I always tell young people, 'Go ahead and do it. You can always apologize later.'

Grace Hopper

#2. If one ox could not do the job they did not try to grow a bigger ox, but used two oxen. When we need greater computer power, the answer is not to get a bigger computer, but ... to build systems of computers and operate them in parallel.

Grace Hopper

#3. It's always easier to apologize for something you've already done than to get approval for it in advance.

Grace Hopper

#4. If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.

Grace Hopper

#5. From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it.

Grace Hopper

#6. We're flooding people with information. We need to feed it through a processor. A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge.

Grace Hopper

#7. I've received many honors and I'm grateful for them; but I've already received the highest award I'll ever receive, and that has been the privilege and honor of serving very proudly in the United States Navy.

Grace Hopper

#8. If you do something once, people will call it an accident. If you do it twice, they call it a coincidence. But do it a third time and you've just proven a natural law!

Grace Hopper

#9. It is easier to apologize than to get permission.

Grace Hopper

#10. You manage things; you lead people.

Grace Hopper

#11. To me programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge.

Grace Hopper

#12. I will not take what you need to give me. I will take what you want to give me.

Grace Hopper

#13. It's easier to apologize than ask for permission.

Grace Hopper

#14. At any given moment, there is always a line representing what your boss will believe. If you step over it, you will not get your budget. Go as close to that line as you can.

Grace Hopper

#15. You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership.

Grace Hopper

#16. I need something to compare this to. Could I please have a microsecond?

Grace Hopper

#17. Developing a compiler was a logical move; but in matters like this, you don't run against logic - you run against people who can't change their minds.

Grace Hopper

#18. I handed my passport to the immigration officer, and he looked at it and looked at me and said, 'What are you?'

Grace Hopper

#19. It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Grace Hopper

#20. I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. They told me computers could only do arithmetic.

Grace Hopper

#21. We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.

Grace Hopper

#22. Humans are allergic to change.

Grace Hopper

#23. We're just getting started. We're just beginning to meet what will be the future-we've got the Model T.

Grace Hopper

#24. No computer is ever going to ask a new, reasonable question. It takes trained people to do that.

Grace Hopper

#25. If you want my ghost just say ' We've always done it that way.' and i will haunt you for 24 hours.

Grace Hopper

#26. The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's simply larger than it needs to be. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission

Grace Hopper

#27. Some day, on the corporate balance sheet, there will be an entry which reads, "Information"; for in most cases, the information is more valuable than the hardware which processes it.

Grace Hopper