Linus Torvalds Quotes

Theory can leave questions unanswered, but practice has to come up with something.

He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.

A theory must be tempered with reality.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

You can't run a business or anything else on a theory.

One pursues economic theory in too extreme an extent he is likely to be in trouble; you have to consider the reality and blend what you observe as reality with an ingredient of theory, and a little, just a little bit ahead of the time, then you are likely to succeed.

On Pragmatism: It's all very well in theory but it doesn't work in practice

Life had stepped into the place of theory.

Logic doesn't apply to the real world.

There is such a difference between life and theory.

The logic of words should yield to the logic of realities.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

Principles ... become modified in practice, by facts.

How empty is theory in the presence of fact!

We are a moderate, pragmatic people, more comfortable with practice than theory.

A think may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice; a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.

Well, it may be all right in practice, but it will never work in theory

Ideals are great in theory ... but they don't work too well in real life.

You know economists; they're the sort of people who see something works in practice and wonder if it would work in theory.

One ounce of practice is worth a thousand pounds of theory.

No policy is worth anything outside of reality.

Ideas get substance and value not by being discussed but by being lived.

Typically, a crusade begins when some substantial discrepancy is found between the world as they envision it and the world as it exists. To the anointed, it seems to follow, as the night follows the day, that reality must be brought into line with their vision. Logically, one might just as readily conclude that it is the theory which needs to be brought into line with reality. But that possibility is seldom given much consideration. The fact that reality has survived the test of time and experience, while the viability of their vision has yet to be proven in practice, is likewise seldom given much attention.

Sometimes experience trumps assumption.

The ultimate, most holy form of theory is action.