Top 100 IT Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Talk is cheap. Show me the code.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Action Quotes, Programming Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes

2. “I started Linux as a desktop operating system. And it’s the only area where Linux hasn’t completely taken over. That just annoys the hell out of me.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Technology Quotes

3. “I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It’s the right way to do things.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Programming Quotes, Technology Quotes, Engineering Quotes

4. “Computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better.”

— Donald Knuth

Also featured in: Programming Quotes

5. “Microsoft was founded with a vision of a computer on every desk, and in every home. We’ve never wavered from that vision.”

— Bill Gates

Also featured in: Vision Quotes, Technology Quotes, Quotes About Home

6. “Free software’ is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ‘free’ as in ‘free speech,’ not as in ‘free beer’.”

— Richard Stallman

Also featured in: Quotes on Liberty

7. “In open source, we feel strongly that to really do something well, you have to get a lot of people involved.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Programming Quotes, Collaboration Quotes, Technology Quotes

8. “Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.”

— Bill Gates

Also featured in: Technology Quotes

9. “Innovation is the only way to win.”

— Steve Jobs

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Strategy Quotes, Motivational Work Quotes, Impact Quotes

10. “We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.”

— Bill Gates

Also featured in: Technology Quotes

11. “A computer is like air conditioning – it becomes useless when you open Windows.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Funny Quotes, Clever Quotes, Funny Work Quotes

12. “We’re changing the world with technology.”

— Bill Gates

Also featured in: Business Quotes, Change Quotes, Optimistic Quotes

13. “Our industry does not respect tradition. It only respects innovation.”

— Satya Nadella

Also featured in: Startup Quotes

14. “One of my most productive days was throwing away 1,000 lines of code.”

— Ken Thompson

Also featured in: Programming Quotes

15. “Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”

— Bill Gates

Also featured in: Business Quotes, Professional Growth Quotes, Career Development Quotes

16. “Writing code is not production, it’s not always craftsmanship though it can be, it’s design.”

— Joel Spolsky

Also featured in: Programming Quotes

17. “A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.”

— Alan Turing

Also featured in: Science Quotes, Intelligence Quotes

18. “Make it work, make it right, make it fast.”

— Kent Beck

Also featured in: Programming Quotes, Work Ethic Quotes, Quotes About Work, Technology Quotes

19. “The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in it.”

— Dennis Ritchie

Also featured in: Programming Quotes

20. “Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Silly Quotes, Hilarious Quotes, Clever Quotes

21. “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.”

— Donald Knuth

Also featured in: Programming Quotes, Performance Quotes, Engineering Quotes

22. “In real open source, you have the right to control your own destiny.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Destiny Quotes

23. “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.”

— Steve Jobs

Also featured in: Startup Quotes, Impact Quotes, Inspirational Business Quotes

24. “Excusing bad programming is a shooting offence, no matter what the circumstances.”

— Linus Torvalds

25. “Social engineering bypasses all technologies, including firewalls.”

— Kevin Mitnick

26. “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

— Steve Jobs

Also featured in: Startup Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Work, Inspirational Business Quotes, Short Positive Quotes

27. “UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity.”

— Dennis Ritchie

Also featured in: Programming Quotes, Genius Quotes

28. “An algorithm must be seen to be believed.”

— Donald Knuth

29. “The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete.”

— Mark Zuckerberg

30. “There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels.”

— Richard Stallman

31. “The computing scientist’s main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.”

— Edsger W. Dijkstra

32. “Focusing is about saying No.”

— Steve Jobs

Also featured in: Focus Quotes, Famous Quotes, Productivity Quotes

33. “Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It’s about saying no to all but the most crucial features.”

— Steve Jobs

Also featured in: Strategy Quotes, Innovation Quotes

34. “Don’t hurry your code. Make sure it works well and is well designed. Don’t worry about timing.”

— Linus Torvalds

35. “A breakthrough in machine learning would be worth ten Microsofts.”

— Bill Gates

36. “The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.”

— Richard Hamming

Also featured in: Interesting Quotes, Purpose Quotes, Math Quotes, Quotes About Numbers

37. “I may not be the top student in my university, but all the top students are working at my company, Microsoft.”

— Bill Gates

38. “Only the paranoid survive.”

— Andy Grove

Also featured in: Startup Quotes, Strategy Quotes, Competition Quotes

39. “A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.”

— Alan Turing

Also featured in: Discipline Quotes

40. “Theory and practice sometimes clash. And when that happens, theory loses. Every single time.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Practice Quotes, Engineering Quotes

41. “Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.”

— Edsger W. Dijkstra

Also featured in: Witty Quotes

42. “Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Funny Quotes, Funny Work Quotes

43. “Think twice, code once.”

— Waseem Latif

Also featured in: Short Quotes, Efficiency Quotes, Engineering Quotes

44. “Artificial intelligence is a tool, not a threat.”

— Rodney Brooks

Also featured in: Positive Short Quotes

45. “The engineering is long gone in most PC companies. In the consumer electronics companies, they don’t understand the software parts of it. And so you really can’t make the products that you can make at Apple anywhere else right now. Apple’s the only company that has everything under one roof.”

— Steve Jobs

46. “Most people have no concept of how an automatic transmission works, yet they know how to drive a car. You don’t have to study physics to understand the laws of motion to drive a car. You don’t have to understand any of this stuff to use Macintosh.”

— Steve Jobs

47. “Security is a process, not a product.”

— Bruce Schneier

48. “In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But when I’m talking to journalists I just say “programmer” or something like that.”

— Linus Torvalds

49. “The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competition is to do an outstanding job with information.”

— Bill Gates

Also featured in: Inspirational Business Quotes, Competition Quotes

50. “An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program.”

— Linus Torvalds

Also featured in: Quotes About Numbers