Top 25 Grace Murray Hopper Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The most damaging phrase in the language is: ‘It’s always been done that way.’”

— Grace Murray Hopper

Featured in: Professional Growth Quotes, IT Quotes, Innovation Quotes

2. “It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

Featured in: Boldness Quotes, Peace Quotes

3. “You manage things; you lead people.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

4. “One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

Featured in: IT Quotes, Statistics Quotes

5. “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

Featured in: Adaptability Quotes

6. “You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

7. “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way.”

— Grace Murray 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 Murray Hopper

9. “If it’s a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologise than it is to get permission.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

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

— Grace Murray Hopper

11. “I am now going to make you a gift that will stay with you the rest of your life. For the rest of your life, every time you say, “We’ve always done it that way,” my ghost will appear and haunt you for twenty-four hours.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

12. “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 Murray Hopper

13. “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 Murray Hopper

14. “From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

15. “It’s always easier to apologize for something you’ve already done than to get approval for it in advance.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

16. “Humans are allergic to change.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

17. “No computer is ever going to ask a new, reasonable question. It takes trained people to do that.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

18. “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 Murray Hopper

19. “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 Murray Hopper

20. “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 Murray Hopper

21. “We’re just getting started. We’re just beginning to meet what will be the future-we’ve got the Model T.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

22. “I’ve always been more interested in the future than in the past.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

23. “I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. They told me computers could only do arithmetic.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

24. “We’ve tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

25. “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 Murray Hopper

26. “We’re flooding people with information. We need to feed it through a processor. A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

27. “If it isn’t bolted down, bring it home.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

28. “I will not take what you need to give me. I will take what you want to give me.”

— Grace Murray Hopper

29. “I need something to compare this to. Could I please have a microsecond?”

— Grace Murray Hopper