Charles Babbage

The division of labour is the great principle which gives rise to all the advantages of machinery.

The constant effort of the machine is to reduce the cost of production.

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 departments of science, affords useful assistance.

The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by my failures.

The public are, to a great extent, the dupes of the designing, and the slaves of the ignorant.

The accumulation of skill and science which has been directed to diminish the difficulty of producing manufactured goods, has not been beneficial to that country alone in which it is concentrated; distant kingdoms have participated in its advantages.

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

It is the temper of the stone-breaker to reduce all other professions to a level with his own.

The construction of machinery is, in itself, a most beautiful art, and one which requires the highest order of intellect.

The manufacture of power, and the manufacture of machinery, are two of the most important branches of art in a manufacturing country.

The influence of the calculating engine will be felt on the whole of science.

The principle of the division of labour is as applicable to the work of the intellect as to that of the hands.

The great object of all machinery is to diminish the cost of production.

The results of human industry are perishable; but the machines which assist, or which supersede it, are permanent.

The pursuit of science is not only compatible with the exercise of the highest moral and religious feelings, but it is their natural ally.

The more we know, the more we feel our ignorance; the more we feel how much remains unknown.

The first step in the process of invention is to conceive distinctly the object to be accomplished.

The utility of the calculating engine is most apparent in those cases where a very great number of similar computations are required.

The constant effort of the scientific world is to render the application of science to the arts more simple and more certain.

The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; the causes are the agents which execute those rules.