Charles Babbage

The ultimate object of all science is the discovery of laws.

I have no desire to write my own biography, as long as I have strength and means to do better things.

The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more costly than those which result from abundant imagination.

In the manufacture of all those articles which require a nice adjustment of parts, the division of labor can be carried to a much greater extent than in others.

The existence of a science depends on the possibility of its being reduced to a system.

My life has been a failure in the eyes of the world, but I have no regrets.

The great advantage of the Analytical Engine is that it is not a mere calculating machine, but a machine for operating upon symbols generally.

The more we examine the works of nature, the more we discover the wisdom and the power of their Author.

The errors which arise from the use of tables of logarithms are of two kinds: those which are inherent in the tables themselves, and those which arise from the mistakes of the computers.

The economy of time is of the first importance.

The difference engine is a machine for tabulating functions by the method of differences.

The great object of the Analytical Engine is to effect calculations of any extent and complexity.

The principle of the Analytical Engine is the distribution of the operations to be performed into a series of elementary operations, each of which is executed by a separate part of the machine.

Errors are not an accident, but a necessity.

The more we know, the more we are capable of knowing.

The errors of the press are of two kinds: those which are accidental, and those which are systematic.

The Analytical Engine is an embodying of the science of operations, constructed with the view of carrying on the processes of analysis and synthesis.

The desire to economize time and mental labour in all calculations, and to render the results of those calculations more certain and accurate, has been the leading motive of my life.

The power of the Analytical Engine is limited only by the extent of the human intellect.

The advance of civilization depends upon the advance of science.