The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Category Technology

Featured Quote in Technology

A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done.
Andrew S. Grove Only the Paranoid Survive · 1996

Subcategories

Artificial intelligence (7) Invention (3) Engineering (8) Computing (11) Communication (3) Automation (0) Design (24) Infrastructure (0)

Technology Quotes

“A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done.”

Andrew S. Grove · Only the Paranoid Survive, 1996 · Primary source

“People often overestimate what will happen in the next two years and underestimate what will happen in ten.”

Bill Gates · The Road Ahead, 1995 · Primary source

“The future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.”

William Gibson · The Science in Science Fiction, 1999 · Primary source

“Possibly that feature of aviation which may appeal most to thoughtful women is its potentiality for peace. The term is not merely an airy phrase. Isolation breeds distrust and differences of outlook. Anything which tends to annihilate distance destroys isolation, and brings the world and its peoples closer together. I think aviation has a chance to increase intimacy, understanding, and far-flung friendships thus.”

Amelia Earhart · 20 Hrs. 40 Min., 1928 · Primary source

“Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting.”

Amelia Earhart · 20 Hrs. 40 Min., 1928 · Primary source

“In all spheres of human intellectual and practical activity, from carpentry to golf, from sculpture to space travel, the true craftsman is the one who thoroughly understands his tools.”

Tony Hoare · Hints on Programming-Language Design, 1974 · Primary source

“We have invented machines to work for us, but have less spare labor than ever before for human service.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · Civilization on Trial, 1948 · Primary source

“The design of products has a duty to contribute to a sustainable reduction in the number of products as a whole. Therefore the goal for product culture in the coming decades will be ‘less, but better’.”

Dieter Rams · Less but better, 1995 · Primary source

“Technology is, of course, only a long Greek name for a bag of tools; and we have to ask ourselves: What are the tools that count in this competition in the use of tools as means to power?”

Arnold J. Toynbee · The World and the West, 1953 · Primary source

“Man cannot live by technology alone.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · Civilization on Trial, 1948 · Primary source

“In technology, whatever can be done will be done.”

Andrew S. Grove · Only the Paranoid Survive, 1996 · Primary source

“Good design is as little as possible. Less, but better, because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.”

Dieter Rams · No reliable source

“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

John F. Kennedy · Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort, 1962 · Primary source

“There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.”

Tony Hoare · The Emperor’s Old Clothes, 1981 · Primary source

“The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity.”

Tony Hoare · The Emperor’s Old Clothes, 1981 · Primary source

“I once said that my aim is to leave out everything superfluous in order to allow the essential to come through.”

Dieter Rams · Less but better, 1995 · Primary source

“What is the central core of the subject [computer science]? What is it that distinguishes it from the separate subjects with which it is related? What is the linking thread which gathers these disparate branches into a single discipline? My answer to these questions is simple—it is the art of programming a computer.”

Tony Hoare · Computer Science, 1971 · Primary source

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer—that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That‘s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Steve Jobs · The Guts of a new Machine, 2003 · Secondary source

“Anytime we have new forms of communication it changes behavior whether it is political or business or any type of behavior.”

Bill Gates · Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates, 1993 · Primary source

“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”

Richard Feynman · Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle, 1986 · Primary source

“We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.”

John F. Kennedy · Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort, 1962 · Primary source

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Alan Kay · Learning vs. Teaching with Educational Technologies, 1983 · Primary source

“To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.”

John F. Kennedy · Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort, 1962 · Primary source

“Simplicity is a necessary precondition for reliability.”

Edsger Dijkstra · The Strengths of the Academic Enterprise, 1994 · Primary source

“None of the protection systems that exist today, whether steering-wheel locks or steel vaults, are completely fail-safe. The best we can do is make it as difficult as possible for somebody to break a security device or get inside.”

Bill Gates · The Road Ahead, 1995 · Primary source

“The real value of tests is not that they detect bugs in the code, but that they detect inadequacies in the methods, concentration, and skills of those who design and produce the code.”

Tony Hoare · How Did Software Get So Reliable Without Proof?, 1996 · Primary source

“Inside every large program is a small program struggling to get out.”

Tony Hoare · Efficient Production of Large Programs, 1970 · Secondary source

“If you look out far enough the computer will eventually learn to reason in somewhat the same way that humans do, so called ‘artificial intelligence’. If you take that far enough you can imagine an evolution, essentially, moving over to silicon-based life and carbon-based life, playing a much more limited role than it does today.”

Bill Gates · Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates, 1993 · Primary source

“I don’t think AI’s impact will be as dramatic as the Industrial Revolution, but it certainly will be as big as the introduction of the PC.”

Bill Gates · The Risks of AI are Real but Manageable, 2023 · Primary source

“Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!”

Edsger Dijkstra · Notes on Structured Programming, 1969 · Primary source

“Computer programming is like doing crossword puzzles, and being paid for it.”

Tony Hoare · Computer Science, 1971 · Primary source

“The Braun design department was always involved in self-initiated design studies alongside the usual daily workload. I believe that it is very important for designers to have the creative space to develop and refine their own ideas. Most of our studies never went into production—for various reasons—but they often gave important impulses to product development and our regular design work.”

Dieter Rams · Less but better, 1995 · Primary source

“Here is a language so far ahead of its time that it was not only an improvement on its predecessors but also on nearly all its successors.”

Tony Hoare · Hints on Programming-Language Design, 1974 · Primary source

“It goes without saying that we live with Vitsoe furniture systems; first, because I have only ever designed furniture that I myself would like to have, and second, getting to know the systems in daily use allows me to better recognise where they might be improved or developed further.”

Dieter Rams · Less but better, 1995 · Primary source

“I realised that both verification and testing were using the same technology—assertions—on a common goal of improving software products in their speed of delivery, their quality, and their reliability.”

Tony Hoare · Theories of Programming: The Life & Works of Tony Hoare, 2021 · Primary source

“Annoyance, as we know, is one of the great spurs to technical progress.”

Jordan Ellenberg · How Not to Be Wrong, 2015 · Primary source

“A record player, a kitchen appliance, a slide projector or a shaver with disorderly, chaotic, confusing or overloaded design cannot fulfil its functions. The harmony of a design too, its aesthetic quality, also has a functional purpose—it facilitates a positive emotional relationship between a device and its user.”

Dieter Rams · Less but better, 1995 · Primary source

“A crude measure of the simplicity of an engineering tool is the length of the manual required to give a full and complete account of how to use it and avoid misusing it.”

Tony Hoare · Programming is an Engineering Profession, 1983 · Primary source

“The practical significance of elegance has been contested, but that is only a social phenomenon caused by the fact that elegance requires great care to be achieved and education to be appreciated. In contrast we shall stress that in sophisticated designs, elegance is not a dispensable luxury, but a factor that often decides between success and failure.”

Edsger Dijkstra · Elegance and Effective Reasoning, 1996 · Primary source

“I encourage everyone to follow developments in AI as much as possible. It’s the most transformative innovation any of us will see in our lifetimes.”

Bill Gates · The Risks of AI are Real but Manageable, 2023 · Primary source

“I was eventually persuaded of the need to design programming notations so as to maximize the number of errors which cannot be made, or if made, can be reliably detected at compile time.”

Tony Hoare · The Emperor’s Old Clothes, 1981 · Primary source

“The question [whether computers can think] is just as relevant and just as meaningful as the question whether submarines can swim.”

Edsger Dijkstra · On IPWs: A position paper for a panel discussion on Computers and Society, 1983 · Primary source

“Technical people love to discuss technical problems with technical people who might have an opinion or a suggestion that could be useful.”

Richard Feynman · What Do You Care What Other People Think?, 1986 · Primary source

“The modern age has richly rewarded people with a combination of high intelligence and high agency. Now that many aspects of intelligence are successfully being automated, it seems likely that people with relatively lower intelligence but exceptional agency will come into their own if they are willing to egolessly accept AI advice.”

John Carmack · Message on X (Agency Over Intelligence), 2026 · Primary source

“A PC on every desk and in every home.”

Bill Gates · Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates, 1993 · Primary source

“In all branches of commerce and industry, history shows dramatic reduction in the error rates when their cost is brought back from the customer to the perpetrator.”

Tony Hoare · How Did Software Get So Reliable Without Proof?, 1996 · Primary source

“Functionally oriented design of this kind has always been strongly influenced by technological development, and will continue to be so in the future. The Braun pocket radios that we designed at the end of the 1950s would not have been possible without the new transistor technology at the time. Transistors were not only far smaller than valves, they also required much less power. That meant that for the first time it was possible to make a radio receiver that you could literally put in your pocket.”

Dieter Rams · Less but better, 1995 · Primary source

“I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965.”

Tony Hoare · Null References: The Billion Dollar Mistake, 2009 · Primary source

“My aim was to design [door] handles that were as simple as possible. Our living environment today is complex and polymorphic enough. I have always striven to couteract this chaos.”

Dieter Rams · Less but better, 1995 · Primary source

“The Internet is a tidal wave. It changes the rules. It is an incredible opportunity as well as incredible challenge.”

Bill Gates · The Internet Tidal Wave, 1995 · Primary source

“Projects promoting programming in ‘natural language’ are intrinsically doomed to fail.”

Edsger Dijkstra · How Do We Tell Truths That Might Hurt?, 1975 · Primary source

“Colour was always used extremely sparingly [in Braun hi-fi appliances] and then only to provide information.”

Dieter Rams · Less but better, 1995 · Primary source

“The most important property of a program is whether it accomplishes the intentions of its user.”

Tony Hoare · An Axiomatic Basis for Computer Programming, 1969 · Primary source

“It [using ChatGPT in schools] reminds me of the time when electronic calculators became widespread in the 1970s and 1980s. Some math teachers worried that students would stop learning how to do basic arithmetic, but others embraced the new technology and focused on the thinking skills behind the arithmetic.”

Bill Gates · The Risks of AI are Real but Manageable, 2023 · Primary source

“Of all the things humans have ever created, AI will change society the most.”

Bill Gates · The Year Ahead 2026: Optimism with footnotes, 2026 · Primary source

“Many things were adopted in the war which we were told were technically impossible, but patience, perseverance, and, above all, the spur of necessity under war conditions, made men’s brains act with greater vigour, and science responded to the demands.”

Winston Churchill · The Second World War, 1948-1953 · Primary source

“The Internet is the most important single development to come along since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981.”

Bill Gates · The Internet Tidal Wave, 1995 · Primary source

“Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.”

Edsger Dijkstra · On the Nature of Computing Science, 1984 · Primary source

“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”

Alan Kay · Alan Kay’s talk at Creative Think seminar, 1982 · Secondary source

“Good ideas don’t often scale.”

Alan Kay · Alan Kay’s talk at Creative Think seminar, 1982 · Secondary source

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Leonardo da Vinci · No reliable source

“Many computer programs of the present day are of inordinate size—many thousands of pages of closely printed text. Mathematics has no tradition of dealing with expressions on this scale.”

Tony Hoare · The Mathematics of Programming, 1985 · Primary source

“The history of the development of technique, like the history of geographical expansion, has failed to provide us with a criterion of the growth of civilizations, but it does reveal a principle by which technical progress is governed, which may be described as a law of progressive simplification. The ponderous and bulky steam-engine with its elaborate ‘permanent way’ is replaced by the neat and handy internal-combustion engine which can take to the roads with the speed of a railway train and almost all the freedom of action of a pedestrian. Telegraphy with wires is replaced by telegraphy without wires. The incredibly complicated scripts of the Sinic and Egyptiac societies are replaced by the neat and handy Latin Alphabet.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“All advances in engineering are tested first on small-scale models, in wave tanks, or in wind tunnels. Without models, the research would be prohibitively expensive, and progress would be correspondingly slow.”

Tony Hoare · Programming is an Engineering Profession, 1983 · Primary source

“Give me a place to stand [and a lever long enough], and I will move the Earth.”

Archimedes · Book VIII of the Mathematical Collection, 320 · Secondary source

“Any company that stays the same will be passed by very quickly.”

Bill Gates · Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates, 1993 · Primary source

“In this business, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.”

Bill Gates · Playboy Interview: Bill Gates, 1994 · Primary source

“Few skills are more important than knowing how to distinguish what’s true from what’s false.”

Bill Gates · The Risks of AI are Real but Manageable, 2023 · Primary source

“The idea that great advances in the technology of warfare inevitably led to shorter wars was held by many generations but falsified by many wars.”

Geoffrey Blainey · The Causes of War, 1973 · Primary source

“Killer applications change technological advances from curiosities into moneymaking essentials.”

Bill Gates · The Road Ahead, 1995 · Primary source

“Most problems in real life are poorly understood, in that the real problem is often something different from what it is orginally thought to be.”

Tony Hoare · Computer Science, 1971 · Primary source

“Starting out behind is sometimes an advantage. It lets those who adopt late skip steps, and avoid the mistakes of the trailblazers.”

Bill Gates · The Road Ahead, 1995 · Primary source

“Above all, I did not allow anything to be done which I did not myself understand. It worked!”

Tony Hoare · The Emperor’s Old Clothes, 1981 · Primary source

“If the 1980s were about quality 1990s were about reengineering, then the 2000s will be about velocity. About how quickly the nature of business will change. About how quickly business itself will be transacted.”

Bill Gates · Business @ the Speed of Thought, 1999 · Primary source

“The difference between a good software person and a great software person is fifty to one, twenty-five to fifty to one, huge dynamic range.”

Steve Jobs · Smithsonian Oral and Video Histories: Steve Jobs, 1995 · Primary source

“The stars seemed near enough to touch and never before have I seen so many. I always believed the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, but I was sure of it that night.”

Amelia Earhart · Last Flight, 1937 · Primary source

“Computing is a good historical example where lower costs actually caused the overall market to grow.”

Bill Gates · The Year Ahead 2026: Optimism with footnotes, 2026 · Primary source

“In the development of our understanding of complex phenomena, the most powerful tool available to the human intellect is abstraction. Abstraction arises from a recognition of similarities between certain objects, situations, or processes in the real world, and the decision to concentrate on these similarities, and to ignore for the time being the differences.”

Tony Hoare · Structured Programming, 1972 · Primary source

“Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.”

Amelia Earhart · The Fun of It, 1932 · Primary source

“Our hiring was always focused on people right out of school. We had a few key hires like Charles Simonyi who came in with experience. But most of our developers, we decided that we wanted them to come with clear minds, not polluted by some other approach, to learn the way that we liked to develop software, and to put the kind of energy into it that we thought was key.”

Bill Gates · Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates, 1993 · Primary source

“I want every product plan to try and go overboard on Internet features.”

Bill Gates · The Internet Tidal Wave, 1995 · Primary source

“The key to the competition in operating systems was getting lots of applications.”

Bill Gates · Smithsonian Interview: Bill Gates, 1993 · Primary source

Explore the category

Technology

8 subcategories · 16 authors · 37 works · 161 themes · 293 tags
Authors
Amelia Earhart American aviation pioneerBill Gates American Entrepreneur and PhilanthropistWinston Churchill British prime minister
Works
The Emperor’s Old Clothes Tony Hoare · 198120 Hrs. 40 Min. Amelia Earhart · 1928Only the Paranoid Survive Andrew S. Grove · 1996
Themes
Reduction to essentialsSimplicity versus complexityHidden flaws in design
Tags
SimplicityTechnological changeComplexityProduct design
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