Charles Babbage Quotes

63 quotes in 1143 categories

• It will be readily admitted, that a degree conferred by an university, ought to be a pledge to the public that he who holds it…
• That the state of knowledge in any country will exert a directive influence on the general system of instruction adopted in it, is a principle…
• There is, however, another purpose to which academies contribute. When they consist of a limited number of persons, eminent for their knowledge, it becomes an…
• To those who have chosen the profession of medicine, a knowledge of chemistry, and of some branches of natural history, and, indeed, of several other…
• You will be able to appreciate the influence of such an Engine on the future progress of science. I live in a country which is…
• I have no desire to write my own biography, as long as I have strength and means to do better work.
• Science in England is not a profession: its cultivators are scarcely recognised even as a class. Our language itself contains no single term by which…
• Forging differs from hoaxing, inasmuch as in the later the deceit is intended to last for a time, and then be discovered, to the ridicule…
• Of Cooking. This is an art of various forms, the object of which is to give ordinary observations the appearance and character of those of…
• Remember that accumulated knowledge, like accumulated capital, increases at compound interest: but it differs from the accumulation of capital in this; that the increase of…
• That science has long been neglected and declining in England, is not an opinion originating with me, but is shared by many, and has been…
• The whole of the developments and operations of analysis are now capable of being executed by machinery ... As soon as an Analytical Engine exists,…
• It can happen to but few philosophers, and but at distant intervals, to snatch a science, like Dalton, from the chaos of indefinite combination, and…
• The first steps in the path of discovery, and the first approximate measures, are those which add most to the existing knowledge of mankind.
• Unless there exist peculiar institutions for the support of such inquirers, or unless the Government directly interfere, the contriver of a thaumatrope may derive profit…
• No person will deny that the highest degree of attainable accuracy is an object to be desired, and it is generally found that the last…
• I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam,
• Scientific knowledge scarcely exists amongst the higher classes of society. The discussion in the Houses of Lords or of Commons, which arise on the occurrence…
• Whenever a man can get hold of numbers, they are invaluable: if correct, they assist in informing his own mind, but they are still more…
• In England, the profession of the law is that which seems to hold out the strongest attraction to talent, from the circumstance, that in it…

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