Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Grace Hopper

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American scientist Grace Hopper.

Last updated on November 8, 2024.

Grace Brewster Murray Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and the FLOW-MATIC programming language she created using this theory was later extended to create COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.

American - Scientist | December 9, 1906 - January 1, 1992

Source: Wikipedia

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

Grace Hopper

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

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

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

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

If it isn't bolted down, bring it home.

Grace Hopper

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

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

Grace Hopper

I've always been more interested in the future than in the past.

Grace Hopper

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

One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.

Grace Hopper

You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

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

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

Grace Hopper

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

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

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

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

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

Grace Hopper

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 Hopper

Manage things. Lead people.

Grace Hopper

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

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 Hopper

The most damaging phrase in the language is: 'It's always been done that way.'

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down. Respect for one's superiors; care for one's crew.

Grace Hopper

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

It's easier to apologize than ask for permission.

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

It is easier to apologize than to get permission.

Grace Hopper

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

Grace Hopper

I'm totally against women in combat, because we live in a culture and a society that imposes on every man the concept of women and children first...If you had a man and a woman trying to go through some dangerous woods, the man's instinct would be to protect the woman. Therefore you weaken the man.

Grace Hopper

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

You manage things and lead people.

Grace Hopper

Top 38 Quotes & Sayings by Grace Hopper

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