Grace Hopper famous quotes

05-22-2025

It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
-- Grace Hopper

#Forgiveness #Peace #Apology
To me programming is more than an important practical art. It is also a gigantic undertaking in the foundations of knowledge.
-- Grace Hopper

#Art #Important #Foundation
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
-- Grace Hopper

#Inspirational #Life #Motivational
The most damaging phrase in the language is: `It's always been done that way.'
-- Grace Hopper

#Education #Phrases #Done
You manage things; you lead people.
-- Grace Hopper

#Leadership #People #Manage
We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question.
-- Grace Hopper

#Technology #Computer #Forget
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

#Education #Running #Wall
Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down. Respect for one's superiors; care for one's crew.
-- Grace Hopper

#Loyalty #Two #Care
One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.
-- Grace Hopper

#Experts #Measurement #Opinion
I've always been more interested in the future than in the past
-- Grace Hopper

#Past
It's easier to apologize than ask for permission.
-- Grace Hopper

#Apology #Apologizing #Easier
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

#Sex #Children #Men
No computer is ever going to ask a new, reasonable question. It takes trained people to do that.
-- Grace Hopper

#People #Computer
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

#People #Phrases #Done
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

#Business #Ideas #Easier
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

#People #Needs #Information
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

#Balance #Information #Process
You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership.
-- Grace Hopper

#People #Management #Overboard
It's always easier to apologize for something you've already done than to get approval for it in advance.
-- Grace Hopper

#Business #Done #Approval
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

#Life #Twenties #Done
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

#Law #People #Coincidence
Humans are allergic to change.
-- Grace Hopper

#Peace #Allergic #Humans
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

#Military #Grateful #Awards
I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. They told me computers could only do arithmetic.
-- Grace Hopper

#Running #Computer #Arithmetic
I need something to compare this to. Could I please have a microsecond?
-- Grace Hopper

#Needs #Compare #Please
From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it.
-- Grace Hopper

#Technology #Bugs #Computer

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