Top 60 Coding Quotes to Inspire Software Developers

Here, we have compiled a list of 60 best quotes about software development. Explore these software development quotes by top influencers in the IT industry to get some inspiration, motivation, and wisdom.

The best part is that we have also added funny quotes on programming and software engineering. So, if you want to start or end your day with a laugh, read this article until the end.

You should also check out these astonishing facts about software developers.

Inspirational Quotes About Software Development

1. “First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.” – John Johnson

2. “Usability’s strength is in identifying problems, while design’s strength is in identifying solutions.” – Alan Cooper

3. “Programming is just saying “I have a meeting in an hour so better not start on this yet” to yourself until you die.” – Alex Engelberg

4. “Don’t comment bad code – rewrite it.” – Brian Kernighan

5. “The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before.” – Bill Gates

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6. “Quality is a product of a conflict between programmers and testers.” ― Yegor Bugayenko

7. “I’m not a great programmer; I’m just a good programmer with great habits.” ― Kent Beck.

8. “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different” – Coco Chanel

9. “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world…if you do so, you are insulting yourself.” – Bill Gates

10. “We have to stop optimizing for programmers and start optimizing for users.” — Jeff Atwood

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11. “Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite and reuse” — Eric S. Raymond

12. “A language that doesn’t affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing” — Alan Perlis

13. “Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.” – Edsger W. Dijkstra

14. “Premature optimization is the root of all evil” – Donald Knuth

15. “In programming, if someone tells you “you’re overcomplicating it,” they’re either 10 steps behind you or 10 steps ahead of you.” — Andrew Clark

Funny Quotes About Software Development

16. “Java is to JavaScript what car is to Carpet.” – Chris Heilmann

17. “Ruby is rubbish! PHP is phpantastic!” – Nikita Popov

18. “Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it’s bad.” – Cory House

19. “The most disastrous thing that you can ever learn is your first programming language” – Alan Kay

20. “Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight.” – Bill Gates

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21. “There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.” – Bjarne Stroustrup

22. “One of my most productive days was throwing away 1000 lines of code.” – Ken Thompson

23. “Linux is only free if your time has no value.” – Jamie Zawinski

24. “Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen.” – Edward V. Berard

25. “Programmer: A machine that turns coffee into code.”

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26. “One bad programmer can easily create two new jobs a year.” – David Parnas

27. “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” – Bill Gates

28. “C programmers never die. They are just cast into void.” – Alan Perlis.

29. “A language that doesn’t have everything is actually easier to program in than some that do.” –  Dennis Ritchie

30. “The art of debugging is figuring out what you really told your program to do rather than what you thought you told it to do.” – Andrew Singer

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Great Software Development Quotes

31. “Programming isn’t about what you know; it’s about what you can figure out.” – Chris Pine

32. “Whenever I have to think to understand what the code is doing, I ask myself if I can refactor the code to make that understanding more immediately apparent.” – Martin Fowler

33. “When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code.” – Richard E. Pattis

34. “Copy-and-Paste was programmed by programmers for programmers actually.”

35. “Without requirements or design, programming is the art of adding bugs to an empty text file.” – Louis Srygley

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36. “There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.” – Alan J. Perlis

37. “First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.” – John Johnson

38. “If you think good architecture is expensive, try bad architecture.”

39. “Most good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program.” – Rajanand

40. “Algorithm: Word used by programmers when they don’t want to explain what they did.”

41. “The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.” – Dennis Ritchie

42. “The function of a good software is to make the complex appear to be simple.” – Grady Booch

43. “I’ve finally learned what upward compatible means. It means we get to keep all our old mistakes.”

44. “One man’s crappy software is another man’s full-time job.”

45. “Sometimes it’s better to leave something alone, to pause, and that’s very true of programming.” – Joyce Wheeler

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Inspirational Quotes for Software Developers

46. “Your mind is programmable – if you’re not programming your mind, else will program it for you.” – Jeremy Hammond

47. “True innovation often comes from the small startup who is lean enough to launch a market but lacks the heft to own it.” – Timm Martin

48. “Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming.” – Brian Kernighan

49. “Programmers are in a race with the Universe to create bigger and better idiot-proof programs, while the Universe is trying to create bigger and better idiots. So far the Universe is winning.” – Rich Cook

50. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay

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51. “First learn computer science and all the theory. Next develop a programming style. Then forget all that and just hack.” – George Carrette

52. “The purpose of software engineering is to control complexity, not to create it.”

53. “Coding is the language of the future, and every girl should learn it. As I’ve learned from watching girls grow and learn in our classrooms, coding is fun, collaborative and creative.” – Reshma Saujani

54. “Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you just want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn.” – Stephen Hawking

55. “It’s harder to read code than to write it.” — Joel Spolsky

56. “Indeed one of the best ways to deflect attacks is to make it look like they’re succeeding. It’s the software equivalent of playing dead.” — Joel Spolsky

57. “This is a software-powered world.” — Satya Nadella

58. “We want to get engineers to think about something else.” ― James Gosling

59. “Talk is cheap. Show me the code.” ― Linus Torvalds

60. “What’s the object-oriented way to get wealthy?” Inheritance

Summary

We sum up our list of 60 best quotes about software development. We hope you enjoyed reading these coding quotes and gained some inspiration and wisdom from the top leaders in the software development industry.

Please don’t forget to share this article with your friends so that they can also enjoy these funny and inspirational software development quotes.