E. W. Dijkstra is a very important computer scientist and prolific writer. I like to keep a reference to his work handy. Very inspiring for the breadth and depth of thinking.
He didn't hold back on his opinions. Here's a gem where he rips on a language called "Pearl" (not to be confused with the PERL of Larry Wall).
Advice for the ages:
"Too bitter to be healthy, and, secondly, wrong: by and large, the hopes are each time genuine."
Wow. Gives me chills. And yet, here we are. Failure after failure and in a world of computing so amazing that the entire planet is connected. I have access to world-class hardware and algorithms at my fingertips. Languages are simple and IDEs tell me when I'm writing bad code. It speaks well for pursuing castles in the air. Damn every failure and fail again until you create something amazing.