Grace Murray Hopper Quotes

It is better to beg forgiveness, than ask permission.

Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down." (CBS 60 Minutes interview, March 6, 1983)

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.

The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.

Wouldn’t it be dull to do things that ended?

Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems.

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

Finally, leaders focus on people. In the words of Grace Murray Hopper, computer scientist and rear admiral in the US Navy, “You manage things; you lead people.” Naturally,

This is it,” said Dad. “Grace Brewster Murray Hopper Hall.” They wound their way upstairs and down long hallways to a door that said MATH LAB. “Here we are!” said Dad. A girl with green eyes and a messy ponytail greeted them. “You must be the Moodys.” “I’m Richard Moody, and this is my daughter, Judy,” said Dad. “Hi, I’m Chloe. Chloe Canfield. My friends call me C-squared, since my name has two Cs and I go to CC. You know, C to the second power, ’cause I’m into math?” “That’s funny,” said Dad, shaking her hand. “I don’t get it,” said Judy.

In 1951, Grace Murray Hopper, a mathematician with the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance Naval Reserve, conceived of a program called a compiler, which translated a programmer’s instructions into the strings of ones and zeroes, or machine language, that ultimately controlled the computer. In principle, compilers seemed just the thing to free programmers from the tyranny of hardware and the mind-numbing binary code. Hopper