"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."

"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work."

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."

"'Management' means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folklore and superstition, and of cooperation for force. . ."

"The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction and malperformance."

"Management by objectives works if you first think through your objectives. Ninety percent of the time you haven't."

"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside."

"If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it."

"Not even computers will replace committees, because committees buy computers."

"Computers can figure out all kinds of problems, except the things in the world that just don't add up."

"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents."

"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."