Charles Babbage

The Analytical Engine is capable of executing any operation that can be expressed by a finite number of elementary operations.

The great object of the Analytical Engine is to perform calculations of any extent and complexity, and to print the results.

The Analytical Engine is a machine which can perform any calculation that can be performed by a human being.

I am thinking of a machine which shall execute the most complicated calculations, and which shall be capable of printing its own results.

The great object of my life has been to construct a machine which should execute calculations by steam or other power, and thus to supersede the necessity of human intellect in the more laborious and monotonous part of mathematical operations.

The more I examine the works of the Creator, the more I am struck with the wisdom and beneficence of the design.

Errors, of course, are not to be tolerated in a machine.

I have been incessantly occupied in the construction of my calculating machines, and have made considerable progress.

The whole of the great difficulty of the Analytical Engine seems to me to lie in the arrangement of the cards.

It is a great misfortune to be born with a mind that cannot be satisfied with the ordinary pursuits of life.

The public are always ready to receive with avidity any new invention, provided it is not too useful.

I am quite worn out with the incessant demands upon my time and attention.

The great object of my life has been to construct a machine which should execute calculations by steam or other power.

I have been tormented by the noise of street musicians.

The more I think of it, the more I am convinced that the Analytical Engine is the most important invention I have ever made.

It is a singular fact that the most important discoveries are often made by accident.

The great difficulty of the Analytical Engine is not in the principles, but in the details of its construction.

I am perfectly convinced that the day will arrive when the Analytical Engine will be in full operation.

The public are very slow to appreciate anything that is really new.

I have been engaged in a most arduous and difficult undertaking.