“Some kinds of nails, such as those used for defending the soles of coarse shoes, called hobnails, require a particular form of the head, which is made by the stroke of a die.”

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.

Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.

There are few circumstances which so strongly distinguish the philosopher, as the calmness with which he can reply to criticisms he may think undeservedly severe.

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 advances towards precision require a greater devotion of time, labour, and expense, than those which precede them.

It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands of persons, and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their time, destroyed by organ-grinders and other similar nuisances.

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 useful in deluding the minds of others. Numbers are the masters of the weak, but the slaves of the strong.

What is there in a name? It is merely an empty basket, until you put something into it.

For one person who is blessed with the power of invention, many will always be found who have the capacity of applying principles.

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

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 incapable of estimating it.

Another mode of accumulating power arises from lifting a weight and then allowing it to fall.

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

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 science.

A powerful attraction exists, therefore, to the promotion of a study and of duties of all others engrossing the time most completely, and which is less benefited than most others by any acquaintance with science.

Whenever the work is itself light, it becomes necessary, in order to economize time, to increase the velocity.

I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam.

To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.

Today, however, we are having a hard time living because we are so bent on outwitting death.

Death itself does not frighten me; it is the jump I am afraid of.

If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life – and only then will I be free to become myself.

The broken heart. You think you will die, but you just keep living, day after day after terrible day.

Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying.

If your humanity is dead, you need a lot of morality. If your humanity is alive and overflowing, you will naturally do the best for yourself and everyone around you.

Beauty shames the ugly. Strength shames the weak. Death shames the living – and the Ideal shames us all.