Charles Babbage

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 will necessarily guide the future course of the science.

The errors which arise from the absence of facts are far more numerous and more durable than those which result from unsound reasoning respecting true data.

At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.

I am thinking that all these tables might be calculated by machinery.

The air of England is too thick for genius to breathe in.

The first objective of the inventor of a calculating engine should be to make it compute with absolute accuracy.

Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it.

The public character of every public servant is legitimate subject of discussion, and his fitness or unfitness for office may be fairly canvassed by any person.

That the state of knowledge in any country will exert a directive influence on its general prosperity, is a fact so obvious, that it would be a waste of time to attempt to illustrate it.

The quantity of meaning compressed into small space by algebraic signs, is another circumstance that facilitates the reasonings we are accustomed to carry on by their aid.

The economy of human time is the next advantage of machinery in manufactures.

In mathematical science, more than in all others, help from without is oftener needed than in any other.

The march of the human mind is slow.

The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.

The great principles of truth and justice are the same in all ages.

The pursuit of science is a duty which every government owes to its people.

The power of repeating over and over again the same operation, without fatigue, and with undeviating precision, is one of the most important advantages which machinery possesses over human labour.

The more man inquires into the laws which regulate the material universe, the more he is convinced that all its varied forms arise from the action of a few simple principles.

The true value of tables is not always to be measured by the labour they have cost, but by the labour they save.

It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that some portion of the neglect of science in England, may be attributed to the system of education we pursue.