black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

That the state of knowledge in any country will exert a directive influence on the general system of instruction adopted in it, is a principle too obvious to require investigation.

Charles Babbage

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

Calculation Execution God Myself
The tastes and pursuits of manhood will bear on them the traces of the earlier impressions of our education. 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.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Education Impression Man Pursue Pursuit Science Sex Taste
At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Human Knowledge Tools Work
In mathematics we have long since drawn the rein, and given over a hopeless race.
CHARLES BABBAGE

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

Blessing Invention Person Power Principle
Miracles may be, for anything we know to the contrary, phenomena of a higher order of God’s laws, superior to, and, under certain conditions, controlling the inferior order known to us as the ordinary laws of nature.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Control God Law Miracle Nature Order
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.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Destroy Difficult Estimate Intellectual Loss Misery Person Time Work
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.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Attraction Existence Powerful Responsibility Science Study
The fatigue produced on the muscles of the human frame does not altogether depend on the actual force employed in each effort, but partly on the frequency with which it is exerted.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Employment Frame Frequency Human Production Togetherness
The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines… The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at the head of the industrial arts.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Art Construction Employment Industry Key Machine Perfection Possession Success Tools
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.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Absence Errors Fact Reason Result Rise True
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.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Capability Development Execution Future Guide Machine Necessary Operation Science
If we look at the fact, we shall find that the great inventions of the age are not, with us at least, always produced in universities.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Age Education Fact Greatness Invention Production University
It will be readily admitted, that a degree conferred by an university, ought to be a pledge to the public that he who holds it possesses a certain quantity of knowledge.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Knowledge Possession Public Quantity University
Perhaps it would be better for science, that all criticism should be avowed.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Better Criticism Science
Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.
CHARLES BABBAGE

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

Basket Empty Name Yourself
That science has long been neglected and declining in England, is not an opinion originating with me, but is shared by many, and has been expressed by higher authority than mine.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Authority Decline Expression Myself Opinion Science
Those from whose pocket the salary is drawn, and by whose appointment the officer was made, have always a right to discuss the merits of their officers, and their modes of exercising the duties they are paid to perform.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Appointment Discussion Exercise Money Performance Price
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.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Death Form Head Kind Shoes Tools
Perhaps the most important principle on which the economy of a manufacture depends, is the division of labour amongst the persons who perform the work.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Important Performance Person Principle Work
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.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Correct Hold Man Number Slave Strong Value Weakness
There is, however, another purpose to which academies contribute. When they consist of a limited number of persons, eminent for their knowledge, it becomes an object of ambition to be admitted on their list.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Academics Ambition Knowledge Limitation Person Purpose
Telegraphs are machines for conveying information over extensive lines with great rapidity.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Convey Fast Greatness Information Machine
Another mode of accumulating power arises from lifting a weight and then allowing it to fall.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Fall Mode Power Rise
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.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Accurate Degree Devotion Greatness Person Time
The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped, and contribute to the permanent prosperity and strength of the country far more than the most splendid victories of successful war.
CHARLES BABBAGE

Art Civilization Country Hope Prosperity Strength Success Victory War

That the state of knowledge in any country will exert a directive influence on the general system of instruction adopted in it, is a principle too obvious to require investigation.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

That the state of knowledge in any country will exert a directive influence on the general system of instruction adopted in it, is a principle too obvious to require investigation.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Charles Babbage Quotes