$ time echo '(println "Hello, world!")' | clojure Clojure 1.0.0- user=> Hello, world! nil user=> real 0m2.756s user 0m1.040s sys 0m0.140s $ time echo 'p

$ time echo '(println "Hello, world!")' | clojure Clojure 1.0.0- user=> Hello, world! nil user=> real 0m2.756s user 0m1.040s sys 0m0.140s $ time echo 'print "Hello, world!"' | python Hello, world! real 0m0.018s user 0m0.000s sys 0m0.010s Beware the horrible startup time for small programs.