Abelson Quotes

#1. We who preach have one tool. We are people of the book.

John Ortberg

#2. [Computer science] is not really about computers and it's not about computers in the same sense that physics is not really about particle accelerators, and biology is not about microscopes and Petri dishes ... and geometry isn't really about using surveying instruments.

Hal Abelson

#3. Applicants must also have extensive knowledge of Unix, although they should have sufficiently good programming taste to not consider this an achievement.

Hal Abelson

#4. I stand for judgment: answer: shall I have it?

William Shakespeare

#5. If we can dispel the delusion that learning about computers should be an activity of fiddling with array indexes and worrying whether X is an integer or a real number, we can begin to focus on programming as a source of ideas.

Hal Abelson

#6. A powerful programming language is more than just a means for instructing a computer to perform tasks. The language also serves as a framework within which we organize our ideas about processes.

Hal Abelson

#7. It's about us. It's about trust.

Nora Roberts

#8. Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.

Hal Abelson

#9. Love is a Yardstick [10w]
Love is a yardstick by which we can measure our heartbreak.

Beryl Dov

#10. Do you know what investing for the long run but listening to market news everyday is like? It's like a man walking up a big hill with a yo-yo and keeping his eyes fixed on the yo-yo instead of the hill.

Alan Abelson

#11. In a correction, other people's stocks go down, in a bear market, your stocks go down.

Alan Abelson

#12. The dragon lifted his head and regarded her with those eerie eyes. "The princess came," he said in the saddest tone she'd ever heard.

Megan Frampton

#13. What's important is not just to develop the technology; it's to develop the processes.

Hal Abelson

#14. The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think.

Hal Abelson

#15. Solar power, wind power, the way forward is to collaborate with nature - it's the only way we are going to get to the other end of the 21st century.

Bjork

#16. Universities are meant to pass the torch of civilization.

Hal Abelson

#17. The number of strokes to the inch controls the pitch of the note: the more, the higher the pitch; the fewer, the lower the pitch, the size of the stroke controls the loudness ... the tone quality is the most difficult element to control, it is made by the shape of the strokes.

Norman McLaren

#18. She still loves the feel of a new book. While she appreciates the convenience of those thin, slick e-readers, they don't give her the three-dimensional sensory experience that comes with a real book.

Lisa Genova

#19. There's a good part of Computer Science that's like magic. Unfortunately there's a bad part of Computer Science that's like religion.

Hal Abelson

#20. Congress is good at doing two things: one is nothing, and the other is overreacting.

Hal Abelson

#21. Part of the strength of science is that it has tended to attract individuals who love knowledge and the creation of it ... Thus, it is the communication process which is at the core of the vitality and integrity of science.

Philip Abelson