On Monday, September 9, 2002, at 01:43 PM, Aaron J. Grier wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 06, 2002 at 02:34:31AM -0500, Scott Reynolds wrote:
>
>> I seem to recall that there's a relevant Dykstra quote about the evils
>> of optimizing, but I'll be hanged if I can remember it...
>
> "We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time:
> premature optimization is the root of all evil."  --  Tony Hoare

I was wrong -- the famous personality I recalled was of course Donald 
Knuth. A quick search verified that Knuth had actually restated 
"Hoare's Dictum."

Thanks for providing the source!

--scott