Quotes About Grace Hopper

#1. By 1940 Grace Hopper was bored. She had no children, her marriage was unexciting, and teaching math was not as fulfilling as she had hoped.

Walter Isaacson

#2. In pioneer days they used oxen for heavy pulling, and when one ox couldn't budge a log, they didn't try to grow a larger ox. We shouldn't be trying for bigger computers, but for more systems of computers. - Grace Hopper

Tom White

#3. Founded in 1994 by the Anita Borg Institute and growing every year, the Grace Hopper Celebration is bringing needed network connections, skill building, and visibility for women computer scientists who work at all levels of our industry.

Megan Smith

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

Grace Hopper

#5. 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

#6. It is better to beg forgiveness, than ask permission.

Grace Murray Hopper

#7. 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

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

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

#11. Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems.

Grace Murray Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

#13. Humans are allergic to change.

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

#16. Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, 'We've always done it this way.' I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise.

Grace Murray Hopper

#17. Finally, leaders focus on people. In the words of Grace Murray Hopper, computer scientist and rear admiral in the US Navy, "You manage things; you lead people." Naturally,

Jocelyn Davis

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

Grace Hopper

#19. 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

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

Grace Hopper

#21. 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

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

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

#25. You manage things; you lead people.

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

#27. 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

#28. 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

#29. 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

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

Grace Hopper

#31. 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

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

Grace Hopper

#33. 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

#34. 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

#35. Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down.
(CBS 60 Minutes interview, March 6, 1983)

Grace Murray Hopper