It is not that there is some magic technology. It is what are you goin — Hal Abelson

"Biography on Jewish Software web site"

"Anything which uses science as part of its name isnt: political science, creation science, computer science."

"See, in general, as systems designers, you’re forced with necessity to make decisions about how you’re going to do things, and in general, the way you’d like to retain flexibility is to never make up your mind about anything until you’re forced to do it. The problem is, there’s a very, very narrow line between deferring decisions and outright procrastination. So you’d like to make progress, but also at the same time, never be bound by the consequences of your decisions."

"[Computer science] is not really about computers -- and its not about computers in the same sense that physics is not really about particle accelerators, and biology is not about microscopes and Petri dishes...and geometry isnt really about using surveying instruments. Now the reason that we think computer science is about computers is pretty much the same reason that the Egyptians thought geometry was about surveying instruments: when some field is just getting started and you dont really understand it very well, its very easy to confuse the essence of what youre doing with the tools that you use."

"If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders."

"In the Middle Ages people built cathedrals, where the whole town would get together and make a thing thats greater than any individual person could do and the society would kind of revel in that. We dont do that as much anymore, but in a sense this is kind of like building a cathedral."